BT 

ma 



OF THE 

DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST; 

WITH 
OF 

CHRISTIAN AND HEATHEN WRITERS, 

THAT HE WAS CALLED 

' GOD, 

. And Worshipped as God, 

IN THE 

FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 

DESIGNED, CHIEFLY, FOR THE USE OF THOSE, WHO HAVE 

NOT AN OPPORTUNITY OF CONSULTING LARGER, 

OR MORE CRITICAL WORKS. 



' Consider what I say ; and the Lord give thee understanding in 
: things." 2 Tim. ii. 7. 



BY FREDERICK DALCHO, M. D. 

Msistant Minuter of St. Michael's Churchy Charleston. 



CHARLESTON: 

Published by E. Thayer, at his Theological Book-Store, Broad-streef. 
A- E. Miller, Printer, 120, Broad-street- 

1820, 



* 9 



:S>"Te\ 



a 



.^ 



District of South-Carolina, to wit: 



4COCC* 



BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twenty-third day of August, 
a Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and in the 
« T K fortv-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, 
11 OKAi*. ii the Rev Frederick D3!cho, M. D- of the said district, hath deposited 
*QOQOA in this office tne title °f a book, the right whereof he claims as 
TWWWJf author, in the words following, to wit: 

*Eridences of the Divinity of Jesus Christ; with the Testimony of Chris- 
tian and Heathen Writers, that he was called God, and worshipped as God, 
in the First Three Centuries. Designed, chiefly, for the use of those, who 
have not an opportunity of consulting larger, or more critical works. 
* Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.' 
1 Tim. ii. 7. By Frederick Dalcho, M. D. Assistant Minister of St. Michael's 
Church, Charleston." 

In conformity with the act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An act 
for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of maps, charts, and 
books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men- 
tioned," and also to the act entitled " An act supplementary to an act, entitled, ' An 
act for the encouragement of learning, by seeming the copies of maps, charts, and 
books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men- 
tioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and 
etching historical and other prints." 

JAMES JERVEY, 
Clerk of the District of South-Carolina. 



~~ &o% 



To the Officers and Trustees of the Protestant 
Episcopal Society for the Advancement of 
Christianity in South-Carolina, _ 

Gentlemen, 

THE pious cause in which you are so zealously 
engaged, will be a source of consolation and joy to your 
departing spirits, when other scenes are opening to your 
view. It will be among your most delightful reflections, 
that you had been labouring to promote the best interests 
of m,an on earth ; that you had endeavoured to prepare 
him for mansions beyond the skies. And it must, gentle- 
men, be a source of no ordinary felicity to you now, to 
reflect, that you are promoting the great cause for which 
{fie Redeemer came into the world, and bled, and died. 
You are spreading through the destitute part?, of the. State, 
a knowledge of that 6i great salvation" which he purchased 
with the blood of his cross, and offering to sinners the means 
°f grace, established by his Church. 

While thus, through your instrumentality, his Great 
Name is sounded abroad by the Heralds of his Gospel; 
and the " lively oracles" of God are dispensed to the poor 
and needy in Christ, Permit me to offer to your acceptance 



IV 

the following pages, as an humble attempt to show the Na- 
ture and Character of that Redeemer, whose religion you 
are promoting among your fellow men. 

Ardently wishing the Protestant Episcopal Society the 
most distinguished success, in the great and pious work 
in which they are engaged ; and you, Gentlemen , all the 
happiness you can derive, from your devotedness to the 
sacred cause of the Redeemer, 

I am } your Affectionate 

Friend and Fellow-labourer, 

F. DALCHO. 

Charleston, So. Ca. 
Aug. 12, 1820. 



PREFACE. 



I offer the following pages, neither to the Scholar, 
nor the Divine, who, probably, with better sources of in- 
formation than I can command, have examined this im- 
portant subject, and satisfied themselves. But as most of 
the works which have been published on the Divinity of 
Christ, are, either of considerable size, metaphysical, or 
founded on the criticism of the Greek language ; there are 
many humble inquirers after the truth " as it is in Jesus," 
who have not an opportunity of consulting them. To 
these I offer the following " Evidences," of the Essential 
Divinity of our Lord. 

The testimony of the early Christian Writers, is of con- 
siderable importance in establishing, as far as the testi- 
mony of uninspired men can establish, a matter of fact in 
religious faith. The primitive Christians are competent 
witnesses of the oral doctrines, the opinions and customs 
of the Apostles and Apostolical Men. They can declare of 
their own knowledge, whether the interpretation of those 
texts of Scripture, which are now considered by the ortho- 
dox, as evidences of Christ's divinity, were so understood 
by the Church, in their day ; and whether, from the ex- 
ample and instruction of the immediate disciples of Jesus 
Christ, the Church worshipped him as God. If these 
things were so, they must have been known to them : and 
A2 



VI 

their testimony must be received as next in authority te 
the inspired penmen. It must, however, be understood 
that, unless we can fairly prove this doctrine from the 
Scriptures, either by explicit declarations, by just infer- 
ences, or judicious criticism, the opinions of the primitive 
Christians, are not to be taken as sufficient authority. 
The Bible is the word of God, and must be the rule of our 
faith. But when we find them all agreeing with the 
Scriptures, in this essential article of Christian faith, they 
convince us that, we have neither been misled by the 
" cunning craftiness' 5 of men, nor deceived by the interpo- 
lations of the ignorant and the wicked. 

With this view of the subject I purpose, in the following 
pages, to show, in addition to the testimony of the Scrip- 
tures, from the writings of the primitive Christians, and 
Pagan Philosophers, that Jesus Christ was called God, 
and was worshipped as God, in the first ages of the 
Church. This, I hope, will not only be acceptable to 
those,. who are already convinced of this fact, but useful 
to such, as wish for information on this important subject. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface, • • v 

Chap. I. General Observations, • 9 

II. First Century, 34 

Sect. I. Simon Magus, 34 

. II. Philo Judeus,. . . • • 35 

III. Cerinthus, 37 

IV. Ebion, . 39 

V. Clemens Romanus, • • 42 

VI. St.Barnabas, ••• 51 

VII. St. Hermas, , 53 

VIII. Pliny, the Younger, • . . 54 

IX. St. Ignatius, 55 

III. Second Century, • • 62 

Sect. I. Celsus, 62 

II. St.Polycarp, 63 

III. Justin Martyr, 65 

IV. Theophilus, 67 

V. Melito, 68 

VI. Tatian, 69 

VII. Athenagoras, 69 

VIII. Lucian, the heathen, 72 

IX. Tertullian 73 

X. Theodotus, 75 

XL Ireneus, • 76 

XII. Clemens Alexandriaus? • ♦ • 80 



via 

PAGE 

Chap. IV. Third Century, 83 

Sect. I. Minutius Felix, 83 

II. St. Hippolytus, 84 

III. Origen, 85 

IV. Cyprian, 89 

V. Novatian, 91 

VI. Paul of Samosata, 92 

VII. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, 93 

VIII. Dionysius of Alexandria, 95 

IX. Dionysius of Rome, 96 

X. Lucian, the Presbyter, 97 

XI. Arnobius, 98 

V. Of the two natures in Christ ; the Divine and Human, 100' 
VI. Of Christ's appearance on earth before his Incarna- 
tion, Ill 

VII. Divine Names, Titles, &c. applied to Christ, in the 

Scriptures, 1 13 

VIII. Worship given to Christ, 115 

rX. Chriat is God, 1 18 

X, Of a Plurality of Persons in the Godhead, . 122 



EVIDENCES, &c. 

CHAPTER I. 

General Observations. 



"WHAT think ye of Christ?" a Every Christian 
must feel the deepest solicitude on this important question. 
" He that cometh to God, must believe that he is ;" b and 
" no man cometh to the Father, but by Christ." c The 
Scriptures inform us that, " God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life." d But 
before we can come to God by Jesus Christ, we must have 
such a faith in the Redeemer's nature, character and office, 
as the Scriptures of the old and new testaments have re- 
vealed. It must be the " truth as it is in Jesus," and not 
the fancies of our own conceit. We niust be careful not 
to dishonor the Supreme God in our opinion of Christ, 
contemn the economy of his government, or deny the na- 
ture of Jehovah : For " the Lord will be jealous for his 
holy name 5" c " and his glory will he not give to ano- 
ther."/ 

It is an axiom not to be controverted, that, if Christ be 
God, as the Trinitarians believe, upon the authority of the 
Scriptures, then the Arians and Socinians ff are guilty of 

a Matt. xxii. 42. b Heb. xi 6. c John xiv. 6. d John 3. 16. 
e Ezek. xxxix 25 /Isa. xlii. 8. 

g The Arians rose A.D, 315, and derive their name from Arius, a 
presbyter of Alexandria They believe in Christ's pre-existence, but 



10 

blasphemy and sacrilege. On the other hand, if He be 
not God, as they would have us believe, then are we guilty 
of Idolatry and Polytheism. There is no avoiding these 
conclusions. Christ is either the essential God, and enti- 
tled to religious worship, or a creature, and entitled to 
none. There is but one kind of worship, and that is due 
to the Supreme God alone. " Thou shalt have no other 
Gods before me v " h " Ye shall not fear other gods, rtor 
bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to 
them." i * c Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
him only shalt thou serve." k We are forbid in these pas- 
sages to worship any being beside the Supreme God. 
Satan did not pretend to be the Supreme, nor did he re- 
quire our Lord to worship him as the Supreme God, but 
only to offer him some external act of adoration. Our 
Saviour's reply is remarkable. He did not tell him that, 
he would not worship him because he was Satan, but be- 
cause worship could only be offered to the Supreme God. ' 
If Christ be any thing less than the Supreme God, he can- 
not be worshipped, even by the command of God himself; 
because he has, in many places, forbid it; and it would be 
idolatry. St. Paul has declared the Creator to be the sole 
object of worship, and forbidden it to be given to a crea- 
ture. " Who changed the truth of God into a lie," says 
the Apostle, " and worshipped and served the creature 

not in his essential divinity •, that he is the first of all created intelli- 
gences, by whom God made the world ; that he is less than God, but 
superior to men and angels. The Socinians rose in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, and believe him to be a mere man, the son of Joseph and Alary. 
Both sects are divided into others, having various shades of difference 
in their opmion of Christ. They are usually called Unitarians, to 
distinguish them from the orthodox, the Trinitarians. But an assump- 
tion of this name would imply that, they alone believe in the exist- 
ence of one God. This, however, is not true. The Trinitarians 
believe that, there is only one living and true God, although they 
believe in a trinity of persons in the unity of the Godhead; and they 
are, therefore, Unitarians as well as the Arians and Socinians. The 
name of Unitarian, therefore, is wrongly applied to them as a distinc- 
tive character of their faith. If it be used to denote a disbelief in the 
proper divinity of Jesus Christ, then they are entitled- to it in the 
same sense as the Jews and Muhammedans. 

h Exod. xx. 3. Deut. v. 7. vi. 14. i 2 Kings, xvii. 35. Jer. xxv. 6. 

k Matt. iv. 10. t See Waterland on Div. of Christ, p. 230. 



11 

more, than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.' 5 m The 
royal Psalmist has likewise declared the Creator to be the 
object of our worship : " O come, let us worship and bow- 
down : let us kneel before Jehovah our maker: For he is 
our God." n But Christ is our maker, and is therefore 
Jehovah our God 5 for " by him were all things created 
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invi- 
sible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principali- 
ties, or powers: all things were created by him, and for 
him : And he is before all things, and by him all things 
consist." ° 

Nothing beside God is uncreated, and if created, cannot 
be an object of worship, for "thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." If Christ be 
God, but inferior to the Supreme God, then there are two 
Gods, which contradicts the whole tenor of the Scriptures. 
The idea of a subordinate God is ridiculous. If any being 
beside the Supreme God can be worshipped, we must not 
quarrel with ihose who worship the blessed Virgin, the 
Angels and the Saints. God is a "jealous God," p and 
will be worshipped alone, and will not give the glory of his 
Godhead to any other being. " I am Jehovah : that is 
my name : and my glory will I not give to another." « 
ci There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Sa- 
viour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be 
ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for 1 am God and 
there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is 
gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not re- 
turn, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue 
shall swear." r A.nd yet this God, " who changeth not," s 
this '\ God who is not a man that he should lie ; neither 
the son of man, that he should repent," ' this God who 
" will not give his glory to another," hath commanded, 
il that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things 
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 
and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father."" All created 

mRom. i. 25. n Ps. xcv. 6, 7. Col. i. 16, 17. 

p Exod. xx. 5. q Isa. xlii. 8. r Ibid. xlv. 21, 22, 23 

* Mai. iii. 6. * T\ T um. xsiii 19. w Phil. ii. 10, 11. 



12 

beings are commanded to worship the one true God, yet the 
Angels of God are commanded to worship Christ 5 v and 
men are commanded to " honor the Son, even as they honor 
the Father." w If to give the same honor to a creature as is 
given to God, be Idolatry, then is Christ no creature, be- 
cause he is entitled to the same honor as the Supreme 
God 5 and if he be uncreated, he is the eternal God. 
Jehovah " will not give his glory to another ;" x yet 
Jesus Christ ec will come," not only •< in the glory of his 
Father ;" y but " in his own glory." z Christ, then, must 
surely be God. 

The God of the Scriptures is a most perfect Being, both 
in his nature and attributes, and, therefore, must not be 
imperfectly honored by his creatures. If, as the Trinita- 
rians believe, the Scriptures teach us that the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost, subsist in one Jehovah, and we 
worship but the Father only, then, most certainly, we do 
not worship the God of the Bible. If, however, we deny 
that the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in nature and 
essence with the Father, and yet worship either, or both, 
then we dishonor that perfect Being who will not give his 
glory to another. These are awful considerations to 
Christians ; and every reflecting being should lay them to 
heart, that he does not, in his devotions, dishonor that per- 
fect Being, who has revealed himself to us, for our perfect, 
and sincere, adoration and love. 

We see, then, the importance of the apostolic injunction, 
of being " well grounded and settled in the faith, and not 
moved away from the hope of the Gospel which we have 
heard, and which is preached to every creature," a and let 
us u beware, lest any man spoil us through philosophy and 
vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments 
of the world, and not after Christ ; for in him dwelleth all 
the fulness of the Godhead bodily." b The Apostle, anx- 
ious that the faith of his converts should be steady and 
correct, cautions the Church at Ephesus, not to be " tossed 
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, 
by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby 
they lie in wait to deceive." For it wilt be confessed 

v Heb. i. 6 w John, v. 23. x Isa. xlii. 8. 

y Matt. xvi. 27. Mark, viii 38 z Luke ix. 26. 

m Col. i. 23. b Ibid. ii. 8 ? 9. c Eph. iv. 14 



13 

that, much pains must be taken, or in the language of the 
Apostle, much "art and cunning" must be used with those 
who have any knowledge of the Christian Religion, to de- 
stroy their faith in the atonement made by Jesus Christ, d 
and to rest all their hopes of salvation upon what they 
may be able to do for themselves. However firmly Dr. 
Priestley, and his followers, may be " persuaded of the 
falsity of the doctrine ©f the atonement," yet we cling to 
it as our only hope, fully assured that, as " Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners ;" e and "gave him- 
self a ransom for all,"/ " he is able also to save them to 
the uttermost that come unto God by him."^ 

It is a source of great satisfaction to the believers in the 
Deity of Christ to know that, the more the Scriptures are 
subject to the criticism of the truly learned and pious, the 
more is this fundamental article of the Christian faith, 
established. The more the Scriptures are examined, the 
more we feel convinced that, the common authorized ver- 
sion is sufficient for the Christian's use 5 being " profitable 
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction 
in righteousness."^ We have, therefore, the fullest assur- 
ance that, under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit, 
our Bible, without Unitarian alterations and retrench- 
ments, has been, and will be, the means of leading millions 
of souls to the " throne of grace," and to the mercies of a 
covenant God, through the atoning blood, and intercession 
of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and our God.* It is a duty 
therefore, incumbent upon. every soul, to receive the Bible 
as God's word, and to believe it upon God's authority. If 
we find in it some mysteries which are beyond our compre- 
hension, we must not conclude that, they are contrary to 
reason and to fact; for we must remember St. Paul's remark 
to the Corinthian Church, that " the foolishness of God is wis- 
er than men."* Notwithstanding the Unitarians may endea- 
vour to persuade us to the contrary, there is no contradic- 
tion in saying, that three persons subsist in one God, 
because " God is a Spirit." 1 But if we were to say, that 

d Rom. v. 9, 10, 11. e 1 Tim. i. 15. / Ibid. ii. 6. 

g Heb. vii. 25. h 2 Tim. iii. 16. 

» Ejph. i. 7. Col i 14. John, iv. 43. Tit. ii. 13. 2Peti 1 

* ICor. i. 25. / John, iv. 24. 

B 



14 

three, Persons are one Person, it would be an evident con- 
tradiction. And so it would be if we were to assert, that 
they are one, and at the same time are three, in the same 
respect; but it is no contradiction to say, that they are 
three in one respect, as to Persons, and one in another 
respect, as to nature-, and, therefore, as the nature is one, 
so there can be but one God. It will argue, I think, some 
share of dogmatism to assert that, this doctrine is so filled 
with contradictions as to render it unworthy of belief. 
For we may not understand it, and yet it may be true. 
We ought fully to understand, and to comprehend it in all 
its parts, before we venture to pronounce it to be false ; 
otherwise, it may happen, that the error is in our judg- 
ment, and not in the doctrine, and we may be " found 
fighting against God." m 

But if reason cannot comprehend all the mysteries of 
religion, we must not, on that account, refuse them our 
assent, because reason is finite, and, therefore, is but a 
point when compared with infinite wisdom and power. 
The folly of exalting the reason of a derivative being, to 
the capacity of comprehending themature of the underived 
Godhead, is evident, inasmuch as it would charge the 
Almighty with unnecessarily making that a subject of reve- 
lation, which the human intellect was capable of perceiv- 
ing by its own powers. And if the Almighty did not 
know that we could perfectly comprehend all the " mys- 
tery of godliness,"* and the economy of the invisible 
world, without his interference, we are driven to the ne- 
cessity of saying that, he is not omniscient, and, therefore, 
is not God. To such extent will the vanity of ihe human 
intellect lead us ! 

m Acts, v. 39. When the King of Siam was told by the Dutch 
Ambassador, that, in Holland, the water became so hard in winter, 
from the cold, that not only men could walk upon it, but that it would 
sustain the greatest weight, the King was displeased at what he be- 
lieved to be an attempt to impose on him, as no such phenomenon 
was seen in his country. The error lay in his mind, not in the sub- 
ject. He replied to the Ambassador," Hitherto I have believed the 
strange things you have told me, because I look upon you as a sober, 
fair man, but now I am sure you lie." Locke's Works, I. p. 324. fol. e& 

n ITira.iii. 16. 



15 

A man who idolizes his own conceits and prejudices, 
which he dignifies with the appellation of reason, is least 
of all in a condition to understand the word of God aright; 
for he will set up his own judgement as the standard of 
truth, instead of submitting himself to divine revelation 
and instruction, forgetting that "God is greater than 
man." The folly of this conduct is evident. If we trace 
the progress of the human mind from the imbecility of 
infancy to the decrepitude of age, we shall find it to vary 
in its operations and powers. What may be the result of 
reason to-day, to-morrow may yield to other conclusions. 
But truth is immutable, and does not depend upon the rea- 
soning faculty of man ; for what was truth in the vigour 
of his intellect, continues equally true in his second child- 
hood, although he may not perceive it. It is, therefore, 
the imbecility of the mind ; the want of sufficient capacity 
in the reasoning faculty, to draw the proper conclusions, 
which prevents him from discovering the truth at all times, 
and at every age of his life. Shall, then, the great truths 
of religion depend upon this frail faculty of man ? Shall 
nothing be true, but what his varying mind can analyze 
and his judgement explore ? Shall we measure Omnipotence 
by an atom, or compare His wisdom with the vain conceits 
of a creature, who lives only by his permission ? No. But 
" vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild 
asses colt."? 

I would ask one of the advocates for the sufficiency of 
human reason, if it be more difficult for the Almighty to 
create a fetus in the womb of a virgin,? than to create the 
world out of nothing ? r Or is the power of God so limited 
that, although he could form man out of " the dust of the 
ground, and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, and 
man became a living soul," s yet he could not create a child 
in the womb without the intervention of human means? 
If human generation was necessary in one instance, we 
must believe it to have been so in the other. Who, then, 
were the progenitors of our first parents ? If he who cre- 

o John,xxxiii. 12. p Job, xi. 12. 

q Isa. vii. 14. Matt. i. 21. Luke, i. 26—32. 
rGen.i. Heb.xi. 3. 5 Gen.ii. 7. 



16 

ated the world by the power of his word ; i: who spake and 
it was done; who commanded, and it stood fast;" f if he 
be restrained in his operations, or if his power be limited, 
then he is not God, for God is omnipotent ; and u the 
things which are impossible with men. are possible with 
God."" 

The texts in Scripture in which Christ speaks of himself 
as a Man, or his Apostles call him Man, ought so to be 
understood ; for he was as truly Man, as he was truly 
God. Is there any difficulty in this ? Can he not have a 
divine and a human nature? Cannot God take upon him 
human flesh ? Or because ive cannot assume the divine 
nature, will we presume to say that God cannot assume the 
human? "Is any thing too hard for Jehovah ?"* Are 
the Unitarians startled when the Trinitarians speak of man 
as immortal, and yet as subject to death? Is not the im- 
mortal united with the mortal nature in every Unitarian", as 
well as in every other individual of the human species? 
D:> -\ • iT'.it speak of tha m?»tfnnl part fe and 

(ii ? ii' man possesses two n.ilures, 
whcrj i.-> the difficulty of believing that God assumed the 
nature of man for the grandest purpose that men or angels 
tould conceive ? We do not know how the two natures 
r-ubsist in Christ; nor do we know how the three Persons 
subsist in the unity of the Godhead ; neither do we know 
how the material and immaterial natures subsist in man. 
We acknowledge the latter to be true, notwithstanding we 
cannot comprehend it; let us be equally consistent and 
acknowledge the former to be true, although it exceeds 
the limits of our understanding. 

Mystery every where exists. All the works of God are 
full of mystery ; and the greatest mystery of all, is God 
himself. We cannot conceive a power which created the 
world out of nothing, nor the process by which an acorn 
grows and expands into the largest tree of the forest. We 
cannot explain the attraction of cohesion, magnetism, 
electricity, galvanism, gravitation, &c. The sun, so fami- 
liar to our senses and observations, shines with resplendent 

i Ps. xxxiii. 9. u Luke,xviii- 27. Zech. viii. 6. v Gen. xviii. 14 



17 

lustre, yet we are ignorant of the cause of its splendour, 
and the source of its heat. We cannot comprehend the 
velocity with which a ray of light travels 11,751,280 miles 
in a minute. And if this astonishing velocity should stag* 
ger the mind, can we conceive the immensity of that power 
which preserves the earth while it travels in its orbit, 
68,217 miles every hour .5 which is nearly 150 times faster 
than the velocity of a cannon ball ? «« The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." w 
We know that we think, yet the nature of thought is un- 
known ! We contemplate an object at our feet, and in. 
the twinkling of an eye, in a shorter space than we can 
measure by time, we turn our thoughts upon either pole ! 
We can neither explain the cause of muscular motion, nor 
unravel the mystery of animal conception. "As thou 
knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the 
bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child 5 even^ 
so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all !" * 
We cannot comprehend the nature and operations of the 
soul, nor explain the manner of its union with the body ; its 
sentient powers, and its capacity for enjoyment ! We can 
form no idea of the angelic nature, of the celestial hierar- 
chy of Angels and Archangels,^ Cherubim and Seraphim, * 
thrones, dominions, principalities and powers ! a We are 
bewildered when contemplating eternity 5 for the mind 
cannot embrace a duration without beginning and without 
end. " Our own understanding convinces us of the exist- 
ence of a God ; but how is every faculty of the soul bewil- 
dered by the consideration of an uncaused, eternal Being ; 
who is limited by no space, whose essence is entire 1 in all 
places, yet not terminated in any , whose eye penetrates 
at the same instant, the past, present and future; all the 
events which take place in the universe ; all the thoughts 
of the host of intelligent creatures who people the innu- 
merable worlds he has made ; a Being, in whom time has 
no succession 5 that which is past is not gone, and that 

w John, iii. 8. x Eccl. xi. 5. 

y Heb. i. 7. 13, 14. ii. 9. 16. Rev. v. 11. 1 Thess. iv. 16. Jude, 9, 
a Gen. iii. 24. Ezek. x. 5. 20—22. Isa. vi. 2, 3. 6. Heb. i*. 5. 
a Col. i. 16. 

B2 



IB 

which is future is not to come."* Surely, then, the nature 
of God the Father is as incomprehensible a mystery, as 
the incarnation of God the Son, and the subsistence of 
three Persons in one Jehovah. If we deny the Trinity 
because it is incomprehensible, we must, to be consistent 
with ourselves, deny the existence of God, because his self- 
existence, his eternity, his prescience and omnipresence, 
are equally as incomprehensible. But is it not more rea- 
sonable to doubt the powers of the human mind, than to 
deny the existence of all these truths ? Shall we, who 
are ignorant of the manner in which Divine Power ope- 
rates on objects which are subject to our senses, and even 
of the nature of our own existence, undertake to judge of 
the nature of our God ! Shall we arrogantly place our 
own finite judgement in opposition to Infinite Wisdom, 
and Infinite Power ! Because we cannot comprehend the 
Infinite and uncontrollable power of the incomprehensible 
Jehovah, must we endeavour to bring His attributes down 
to a level with our own conceptions ? Because we cannot 
see iuriv u that God is three in some respect, and one in 
some other respect," and " how the three Persons are one 
God ; how the Son is generated, and the Holy Ghost pro- 
ceeds," c shall we therefore deny that it is so ? Can we 
prove that it is not so ? Behold, " there is no wisdom, nor 
counsel against the Lord ;" d for " he turneth wise 
men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish." r 
This has been exemplified in the impugners of our 
Lord's divinity, for hundreds of years past, and in the 
learned who have *• carried on controversies about every 
thing. Some have thought there is no revelation at all j 
some that there is no providence ; some that there is no 
God 5 and while some denied that there is any world but 
this in which we live, others have maintained that this 
world itself is a dream and a fancy, existing only in our 
own minds, and that in reality there is no such thing. So 
that if we wait till all Learned men shall agree, we shall 
believe nothing, know nothing, and do nothing."/ 

i From the Panoplist, I believe ; but I have lost the reference. 

c Home's Works, V. p. 171. d Prov. sxi. 30. e Isa. xliv.25- 

/ Home's Works, V. p. 171. 



19 

" The doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity surpasses the 
comprehension of men and angels, and yet is no way con- 
trary to reason, nor ever the less true, because we are 
short-sighted, ignorant creatures; for God is infinite, but 
we are finite, and, therefore, cannot apprehend or contain 
the vast immensity of his counsels or nature. And this 
conclusion we may safely draw ; that since all we see or 
know appears so wonderful and true, it is reasonable to 
believe, what yet lies under the veil, is either unfit for us 
to know, or too big for our understanding, and reserved 
for our adorations in a state of glory. We should there- 
fore regulate our thirst of knowledge here, by the advice 
of the wise Hebrew,* " Search not the things that are 
above thy strength ; but what is commanded thee, think 
thereon with reverence/' *' But " canst thou by searching 
find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty to per- 
fection ?"* Neither men nor angels can ever know the 
Almighty to perfection; because they are, and always 
must continue, finite beings, and He must always continue 
Infinite ; and the nature of the Infinite can alone be fully 
comprehended by Himself. 

" When the infinite distance is considered between man 
and his Maker, it seems reasonable to presume, that there 
must be mysteries, far above the reach of the human un- 
derstanding, both in the nature of God, and in the plan of 
his government; that the fullest discovery that could be 
made, of God and of his ways, to the human intellect, 
must be imperfect; because, however perfect in itself, it 
could be but imperfectly apprehended. No difficulties, 
therefore, short of a contradiction, can be allowed to con- 
stitute an objection to a doctrine claiming divine original. 
On the contrary, it should rather seem that to involve diffi- 
culties, must be one characteristic of a divine revelation; 
and its greatest difficulties may reasonably be expected to 
lie in those parts, which immediately respect the nature of 
God, and the manner of his existence. If you would sup- 
pose the contrary, if you would insist that a divine revela- 

k Eccles. iii. 21. 

i Ellis on the Knowledge of Divine Things from Revelation, not 
from Reason or Nature, p. 261, tc Job. xi. 7. 



20 

tion, being intended for the general information of man- 
kind, must be perspicuous and free from difficulty ; I would 
ask, is Christianity clear of difficulties in any of the Unita- 
rian schemes ; hath the Arian hypothesis no difficulty, 
when it ascribes both the first formation and the perpetual 
government of the universe, not to the Deity, but to an 
inferior being? Can any power or wisdom, less than the 
Supreme, be a sufficient ground for the trust we are re- 
quired to place in Providence? Make the wisdom and 
the power of our ruler what you please ; still upon the 
Arian principle, it is the wisdom and the power of a crea- 
ture. Where, then, will be the certainty, that the evil 
which we find in the world, hath not crept in through 
pome imperfection in the original contrivance, or in the 
present management? Since every intellect, below the 
first, must be liable to error, and any power, short of the 
Supreme, may be inadequate to purposes of a certain mag- 
nitude. But if evil may have thus crept in, what assurance 
can we have that it will ever be extirpated ? — In the Soci- 
nian scheme, is it no difficulty, that the capacity of a mere 
man should contain that wisdom, by which God made the 
universe ? Whatever is meant by the Wokd in St. John's 
gospel, it is the same Word of which the evangelist says, 
that all things were made by it, and that it was itself made 
flesh. If this Word be the Divine Attribute Wisdom; 
then that attribute, in the degree which was equal to the 
formation of the universe, in this view of the Scripture 
doctrine, was conveyed entire into the mind of a mere 
man, the son of a Jewish carpenter. A much greater 
difficulty, in my apprehension, than any that is to be found 
in the Catholic faith." l 

The celebrated Saurin™ has some delightful thoughts 
on this subject, in a discourse on the omnipresence of God': 
" Either religion," says he, " must tell us nothing about 
God, or what it tells us must be beyond our capacities, 
and, in discovering the borders of this immense ocean, it 
must needs exhibit a vast extent in which our feeble eyes 
are lost. But what surprizes me, what stumbles me, what 
frightens me, is to see a diminutive creature, a contempti- 

l Horsley's Tracts, p. 279. m Saurin's Ser. I. p. 1 10. Charles. Ed. 



n 

ble man, a little ray of light glimmering through a few 
feeble organs, controvert a point with the Supreme Being, 
oppose that Intelligence who sitteth at the helm of the 
world ; question what he affirms, dispute what he deter- 
mines, appeal from his decisions, and, even after God hath 
given evidence, reject all doctrines that are beyond his 
capacity. Enter into thy nothingness, mortal creature. 
What madness animates thee ? How darest thou pretend, 
thou who art but a point, thou whose essence is but an 
atom, to measure thyself with the Supreme Being, with him 
who fills heaven and earth, with him whom " heaven, 
the heaven of heavens, cannot contain.*'' 1 " Canst thou 
by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out the 
Almighty to perfection? It is as high as heaven, 
what canst thou do ? Deeper than hell, what canst thou 
know."" " He stretcheth out the north over the empty 
place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bi'ndelh 
up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent 
niVcior thejl? ' the pillars cf heaven *remb!p, and are asto- 

how little a portion is heard of him ? but the thunder of 
his power who can understand ?"J" " Gird up now thy 
loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer 
thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of 
the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who 
hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who 
hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foun- 
dations thereof fastened ? or who laid the corner stone 
thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea 
with doors, when it brake forth as if it issued out of the 
womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and 
thick darkness the swaddling band for it? And brake up 
for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, 
hitherto shalt thou come, and no further; and here shalt 
thy proud waves be stayed ?""* " He that reproveth God, 
let him answer it."" r O Lord, a such knowledge is too 
wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain unto it."" s 

n 1 Kings, viii. 27. o Job, xi. 7. p lb. xxyi. 7, 8. 11. 14. 

q lb. xxxviii. 3 — 12. r lb. xl. 2. s Ps. exxxix. 6. 



22 

It is an argument greatly in favour of the Catholic 
faith, that the Unitarians, before they venture to " deny 
the Lord who bought them," 4 endeavour to get rid of 
those passages in the sacred writings which prove his 
essential divinity. They either reject them as interpola- 
tions, or ascribe to them a meaning which the original text 
does not fairly convey." The late Dr. Priestley, the head 
of the Socinian sect in England, took a shorter, and a 
safer way to relieve himself from their testimony, for, 
Alexander like, he cut the knot he was unable to untie. 
He denied the inspiration of the New Testament/ Read 
his own words- " I have frequently declared myself not 
to be a believer in the inspiration of the Evangelists and 
Apostles as writers"!! And again, "I think I have 
shown, that the Apostle Paul often reasons inconclusive- 
ly" ! l VJ There certainly is no hypocrisy in this confession, 
whatever there may be of impiety; but yet, it does not 
discover the labour of a master-workman, who lays the 
axe to the root, and fells the tree at once. For while he 
was about it, he might as well have denied the inspiration 
of the old Testament, and then he would have got rid of 
the evidences of revealed religion altogether. He might 
then have formed a Bible more conformable to the taste 
of his friends, have drawn his religion from the pages of 
the Koran/ and his morals from the Portico, the Lyceum, 

t 2 Peter, ii. 1. u See Stuart's Letters to Charming. 

v Priestley's Letters to Bishop Horsley, Part I. p. 132. 

w Hist, of Corrupt, of Christianity, II. p. 370— I think it is Longi- 
nus, the best critic of the heathen world, who places St. Paul among 
the most celebrated orators. 

x The following extracts from Sale's Koran, will show the Unita- 
nanism of the Muhammedan religion: 

" When the Angels said, O Mary, verily God sendeth thee good 
tidings that thou shalt bear the Word, proceeding from himself ; his 
name shall be Christ Jesus the Son of Mary, honorable in this world 
and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the 

presence of God she answered, Lord, how shall I have a Son, 

aince a man hath not touched me ? the Angel said, So God createth 
that which he pleaseth : when he decreeth a thing, he only saith unto 
it, Be, and it is: God shall teach him the scripture, and wisdom, and 
the law, and the gospel ; and shall appoint him his Apostle to the 
children of Israel ■■ ch. 3. p. 63. 

" Surely God will not pardon the giving him an equal, but will par- 
don any other sin, except that, ta whom he pleaseth ; and whoeo 



23 

and the Academy. It would be of importance to the im- 
pu^ners of our Lord's divinity, to abolish the testimony 

giveth a companion unto God, hath devised a great wickedness.'* 
Ch.4.p 104. 

" Verily, Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the Apostle of God, and 
his Word, which he conveyed into Mary, and a spirit proceeding 
from him. Believe, therefore, in God, and his Apostles, and say not, 
There are three Gods ; forbear this ; it will be better for you. [This 
alludes to some heretics of those days, who held the 'Trinity to be 
composed of God, the Son and the Virgin Mary.] God is but one 
God. Far be it from him that he should have a son. 1 ' Ch. 4. p. 126. 

" They are infidels, who say, Verily God is Christ, the Son of 
Mary. Say unto them, and who couid obtain any thing from God to 
the contrary, if be pleased to destroy Cbrist, the Son of Mary, and his 
Mother, and all those who are on the earth." Ch. 5. p. 133. 

" They are surely infidels, who say, Verily, God is Christ, the Son 
of Mary; since Christ said, O children of Israel! serve God, my Lord 
and your Lord ; whoever shall give a companion unto God, God 
shall exclude him from paradise, and his habitation shall be bell-fire, 
and the ungodly shall have none to help (hem. They are certainly 
infidels, who say, God is the third of three : for there is no God, be- 
side one God. -Christ, the Son of Mary, is no more than an Apos- 
tle ; other Apostles have preceded him ; and his mother was a woman 
of veracity : they both ate food." Ch. 5. p 146 

" And, when God shall say unto Jesus, at the last day, O Jesus, 
Son of Mary ! hast thou said unto men, take me and my mother, for 
two Gods, beside God? He shall answer, Praise be unto thee! it is 
not for me to say that which I ought not ; if I had said so, thou 
wouldest surely have known it: thou knowest what is in me, but I 
know not what is in thee ; for thou art the knower of secrets. I 
have not spoken to them any other than what thou didst command 
me ; namely, Worship God, my Lord and your Lord." Ch. 5. p. 156. 

The Muhammedans believe in the miraculous conception of 
Cbrist, whom they call an Apostle of God ; and they believe with the 
Basilidians, and other branches of the Gnostics, that he was taken up 
into heaven before his crucifixion, and tha,t some other person suffered 
in his stead. . 

But the most conclusive evidence on this subject is derived from 
a Letter from the Socinians in England, addressed " to his Illustrious 
Excellency Ameth Ben Ameth, Embassador of the Mighty Emperor 
of Fez and Morocco, to Charles II. King of Great Britain." The 
Letter being too long to insert here, I shall only copy a few passages 

". Know, therefore, noble Sir, that we are of that sect of Christians, 
called Unitarians ; who first of all, do both in our own names, and hi 
that of a multitude of our persuasion (a wise and religious sort of 
people) heartily salute and congratulate your excellency, and all 
that are with you, as votaries and fellow worshippers of that sole 
Supreme Deity of the Father and Creator." 



which can be adduced from the old testament scriptures. 
They are, generally, willing to allow us the historical evi- 
dence of the life and miracles of our Lord; and if they 
were not, we could prove them by the acknowledgement 
of heathen writers. The life and miracles of Christ, prove 
the complete accomplishment of the prophecies concerning 
the Messiah, in Jesus of Nazareth, and in no one else that 
ever came into the world, and fully establishes the essen- 
tial divinity of his nature, and his assumption of* humanity. 
It is however, but justice to say that, 'Dr.- Priestley was 
not the first discoverer of this notable expedient of getting 
rid of the Scriptures by denying their inspiration, and* thus 
to remove the obligation of receiving them as a rule of 
faith. On recurring to ecclesiastical history, we find that 
the impugners of our Lord's divinity, in all ages, have been 
driven to such subterfuges to get rid of the clear, and ex- 
plicit, declarations of the Deity of Christ. Not satisfied 

" He [God] bath raised your Mahomet to do thesame [to defend 
the faith] with the sword, as a scourge on those idolizing christians. 
We, I say, in this our peculiar lot in religious controversies, shall in 
our duty of love undertake to discover unto yon, in these our books, 
those weak places that are found in the platform of your religion ; 
and shall herein (with your favour) offer to your consideration some 
materials to repair them : For we do (for the vindication of your 
Lawmaker's glory) strive to prove" that such ■faults'and irregidarities, 
not cohering with the fashion of the rest of the Alcoran building, nor 
with the undoubted sayings of your prophet, nor with the Gospel of 
Christ, (whereof Mahomet would have himself to be but a preacher) that 
therefore (I say) those contradictions were foisted into the scattered 
papers found after Mahomet's death, ' kc. 

" And why should I forget to add you Mahometans, who also 
consent with us in the belief and worship of one only Supreme 
Deity." 

"We are but two single Philosophers, and yet come as orators of 
those Unitarians, whom we proclaimed to be so great and considera- 
ble a people.' [The persecution which we are exposed to] " is the 
sad reason, that v/e have not hitherto waited in greater numbers, to 
congratulate and welcome your excellency, nor can at this present in 
such a manner as we well judge to be suitable to your grandeur, and 
the respect we bear to your prince and people, for any share of divine 
truth, you or any other do hold entire with us from our God and froxo 
our Saviour Christ." I^slie's fi orks, I. p. 207. 

The original Letter is preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at 
Lambeth j a certificate of its being a true copy is given by Bishop 
Horsley. See Tracts, pp. 307, 308, 309. 588. and White's Bampton 
Lecture, Notes, p, 60 «t seq. 



2b 

with denying the inspiration of the Scriptures, they either 
corrupt the text, or speak of it with irreverence. Euse- 

With the same benevolent intentions, Dr. Priestley addressed a 
series of Letters to the Jews, to persuade them to become a mongrel 
sect, half Christians^ half Jews. " There is no occasion," says the 
Dr. " for you Jews to connect yourselves with any class of Christians. 
On the contrary, since you are still to be distinguished as Jews, no less 
than as Christians, it will be more convenient for you to form a sepa- 
rate Church, and to keen your Sabbath as you now do." Priestley's 
Letters to the Jews, V. p. 40 The Apostles, who were converted Jews, 
under the influence of the Holy Ghost,' established the first day of 
the week, Sunday, to be observed as the Christian Sabbath, in com- 
memoration of our Lord's resurrection, and the descent of the Holy 
Ghost. Acts, xx. 7. 1 Cor. xvi. 2, But Dr. Priestley, being greater 
than Christ's Apostles., (see page 22.) changes the Lord's day from 
Sunday to Saturday ! 

Pri. --tiey's Lettej a. -were answered by David Levi, a Jew; but this 
son oi' Abraham, instead of allowingthe Dr. the distinguishing charac- 
teristics of Christianity, uncourteously calls him a Deist. "Permit 
me, Sir," says Levi, '' to ask you, whether you sincerely intend, in 
tins discussion, to defend Christianity? For your doctrine is so oppo- 
site to what I always understood to be the principles of Christianity, 
that I must ingenuously confess, I am greatly puzzled to reconcile your 
principles with the attempt. What! a writer that asserts, that " the 
miraculous conception of Jesus does not appear to him to be suffi- 
ciently authenticated, and that the original Gospel of St. Matthew did 
not contain it,' (see Priestley's Letters, IV p. 36,) set up for a defender 
of Chrisjtiajiity against the Jews ! This is such an inconsistence, as I 
little expected to meet with in a Philosopher, whose sole pursuit hath 
been in search of truth. Might I be so happy as to. bring him ac- 
quainted with it, I should then think my pains well rewarded : at any 
Tate, I snail- endeavour to speak conformable to it. I must however 
acknowledge, that you are pleased to declare in plain terms, that you 
' do not.believe.lu the miraculous conception of Jesus ; and that you 
are of opinion "that he was the legitimate soh of Joseph.' (Ibid. p. 37.) 
After such assertions as these, how can you be entitled to the appellation 
of a Christian, in the strict sense of the.word, is to me really incom- 
prehensible/' 

Again. " But if I am not greatly mistaken, I verily believe, that the 
honor of Jesus, or the propagation of Christianity, are things of Utile 
moment in your serious thoughis, notwithstanding all your boasted sin- 
cerity. If I have erred, 1 beg of you to bear with me; for it is the love 
of truth that obliges me to speak out : and that I have just cause for 
entertaining this opinion, will appear clearly to every candid and im- 
partial mind. For in your postscript, (page 50,) you argue thus: * If, 
therefore, it be in your power to persuade a heathen, that God really 
spake to your ancestors by Moses, by the force of exactly similar 
argument, you ought to acknowledge, that the same great Being 
spake by Christ and the Apostles : and on whatever principles you 
reject the evidences of Christian miracles, any nerson will be justified 
C 



26 

bius, the father of ecclesiastical history, died A. D. S3$. 
He cites upon this subject from a writer, supposed to be 
Caius, who wrote to refute the Artemonian heresv :» This 
sect, he says, " corrupted the holy and sacred Scriptures 
without any reverence: they rejected the canon of the 
ancient faith: they have been ignorant of Christ, not 
searching what the holy scriptures affirmed, but exercis- 
ing themselves therein, and sifting it to this end, that 
some figure or form of a syllogism might be found, to im- 
pugn the divinity of Christ." Again. " They put their 
profane hands to holy scripture, saying, they would cor- 
rect them." And again. " Either they persuade them- 
selves that the holy scriptures were not indited by the 
instinct [inspiration] of the Holy Ghost/ and so are they 
Infidels; or else they think themselves wiser than the Holy 
Ghost; and what other thing do they in that, than show 
themselves possessed of a devil." a F rom the same source 
we learn that, Artemon affirmed the mere humanity of 
Christ, which the writer calls a "presumptuous heresy," 
and a " blasphemous untruth," and then states that, in the 
scriptures, and the Fathers, Christ is declared to be both 
God and Man. " I mean Justinus, Miltiades, Tatianus 
and Clemens, with many others, in all which works Christ 
is preached and published to be God. Who knoweth not, 
that the works of Ireneus, Melito, and all other Christians, 
do confess Christ to be both God and Man ? To be short, 
how many Psalms, and Hymns, and Canticles, were writ- 
ten from the beginning by the faithful Christians, which 
do celebrate and praise Christ the Word of God, for no 
other than God indeed?" 5 We see, then, that in the 
second century, to deny Christ to be God, was declared 
H a presumptuous heresy," and a " blasphemous untruth." 

in rejecting tbose*on which the truth of your own religion rests ' 
Here we may perceive the complete deiit, under the most Jesuitical 
argument," &c. Letters to Dr. Priestley, <^c- by David Levi, Introduc- 
tory Letter, pp. 62, 63 ; and Letter I, p. 78. 

y See Lardner's Works, I. p. 481. 

» For some excellent observations on the plenary inspiration of the 
Apostles and Evangelists, see Hale's new Analysis of Chronology, 
vol. II. b. 2. p. 682—687. 

a Euseb. His. Eccl Lib. 5. cap. 28. vel 25 Han. The only copy I 
have access to, is Ilanmer's translation, 1584. 

b Ibid. 



27 

The following extracts will show, more fully, the little 
ceremony the Unitarians use with the Scriptures: " Per- 
haps," says a learned and interesting writer, " I may be 
charged with having made a distinction in this place, 
which gives an unfair representation of Unitarians, inas-, 
much as they also profess to derive their arguments from 
scripture. But whether that profession be not intended in 
mockery, one might be almost tempted to question; when 
it is found, that in every instance, the doctrine of scripture 
is tried by their abstract nation of right, and rejected if not 
accordant : when by means of figure and allusion, it is 
every where made to speak a language the most repug- 
nant to all fair, critical interpretation; until emptied of its 
true meaning, it is converted into a vehicle for every fan- 
tastic theory, which under the name of rational, they may 
think proper to adopt: when in such parts as propound 
gospel truths of a contexture too solid to admit of an es- 
cape in figure and allusion, the sacred writers are charged 
as bunglers, producing " lame accounts, improper quota- 
tions, and inconclusive reasonings,"* 5 and philosophy is 
consequently called in to rectify their errors : when one 
writer of this class** tells us that " the narrations," in the 
new testament, " true or false, are only suited for ignorant, 
uncultivated minds, who cannot enter into the evidence of 
natural religion ;" and again, that " Moses, according to 
the childish conceptions of the Jews in his days, paints 
God as agitated by violent affections, partial to one people, 
and hating all other nations:" when another,* 5 remarking 
on St. Peter's declaration, that prophecy came not in old 
time by the loill of man, but Holy men of God spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost, says, that " Peter speaks 
here according to the conception of the Jews," and that 
li the prophets may have delivered the offspring of their 
own brains as divine revelations :"f when a thirds speaks 
of St. John's portion of the New Testament, as written 
with " concise and abrupt obscurity," inconsistent with 
itself, and made up of allegories," and Gagneias glories 

c Priestley's 12th letter to Mr Burn. d Steinbart. e Semler, 
/ Dr. Erskine's Sketches and Hints of Cu, Hist, No. 3. p, 66. 67. 
g Engedin. 



28 

in having given « a little light to St. Paul's darkness, a 
darkness as some think, industriously affected :" when we 
find Mr. Evanson, one of those able commentators referred 
to by Mr. Belsham,* assert, that, "the evangelical histo- 
ries contain gross and irreconciieable contradictions," and 
consequently discard three out of the four, retaining the 
gospel of St. Luke only, at the same time, drawing his 
pen over as much of this, as either from its infelicity of 
style, or other such causes, happens not to meet his appro- 
bation : when we find Dr. Priestley, besides his charge 
against the writers of the New Testament before recited, 
represent in his letter to Dr. Price, the narration of Moses 
concerning the creation and the fall of man, as a lame 
account; and thereby meriting the praise of magnanimity 
bestowed on him by theologians, equally enlightened : 
when finally, not to accumulate instances where so many 
challenge attention, we find the gospel openly described 
by Mr. Belsham,* as containing nothing more than the 
deism of the French Theo-Philanthrope, save only the 
fact of the resurrection of a humau being; and when, for 
the purpose of establishing this, he engages that the 
Unitarian writers shall prune down the scriptures to this 
moral system and this single fact, by showing that whatever 
supports any thing else is either " interpolation, omission, 
false reading, mistranslation, or erroneous interpreta- 
tion ; w * when, I say, all these things are considered, and 
when we find the Bible thus contemned and rejected by 
the gentlemen of this new light, and a new and more con- 
venient gospel carved out for themselves, can the occa- 
sional profession of reverence for scripture, as the word of 
God, be treated in any other light than as a convenient 
mask, or an insulting sneer ?"' 

" The more recent method of exegesis, in Germany," 
says a learned divine of our own country," 1 " has been, 
to solve all the miraculous facts related in the Bible, by 
considerations which are affirmed to be drawn from the 
idiom and ignorance of antiquity in general, and in parti- 

h Review, he p. 206. Dissonance, &x. p. 1. 
i Review, he. p. 217. k Review, p. 206 217, 272. 

I Magee on Atonement and Sacrifice, p. 106, 107. Amer. Ed. 
m Professor Stuart ; see his admirable Letters to Channing. 



29 

cular of the sacred writers themselves. Thus with Eich- 
horn, the account of the creation and fall of man, is 
merely a poetical, philosophical speculation of some inge- 
nious person, on the origin of the world and of evil. n So, 
in regard to the offering up of Isaac by Abraham; he 
says, " the Godhead could not have required of Abraham 
so horrible a crime; and there can be no justification, pal- 
liation, or excuse for this pretended command of the 
Divinity." He then explains it. ' Abraham dreamed 
that he must offer up Isaac, and according to the supersti- 
tion of the times, regarded it as a divine admonition. He 
prepared to execute the mandate, which his dream had 
conveyed to him. A lucky accident, (probably the rust- 
ling of a ram who was entangled in the bushes,) hindered 
it; and this according to ancient idiom, was also the voice 
of the divinity. 70 The same writer represents the history 
of the Mosaic legislation, at Mount Sinai, in a curious 
manner. Moses ascended to the top of Sinai, and built a 
fire there, (how he found wood on this barren rock, or 
raised it to the top, Eichhorn does not tell us,) a fire con- 
secrated to the worship of God, before which he prayed. 
Here an unexpected and tremendous thunder storm oc- 
curred. He seized the occasion, to proclaim the laws 
which he had composed in his retirement, as the statutes 
of Jehovah; leading the people to believe that Jehovah 
had conversed with him. Not that he was a deceiver 5 
but he really believed, that the occurrence of such a thun- 
der storm was a sufficient proof of the fact, that Jehovah 
had spoken to him, or sanctioned the work in which he 
had been engaged.? The prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment are, according to him, patriotic wishes, expressed 
with all the fire and elegance of poetry, for the future 
prosperity, and a future deliverer of the Jewish nation. ? 
In like manner, C. F. Amnion, professor of theology at 
Erlangen, tells us, in respect to the miracle of Christ's 
walking on the water, that " to walk on the sea, is not to 
stand on the waves, as on the solid ground, as Jerom 

n Urgeschichte, passim Bibliothek, Band. i. s. 45 } &p. 

p BibliotheK. Theil. i. s. 76, k.c. 

q Propketen, Bibliothek, Einleit. passim, 

C2 



30 

dreams, but to walk through the waves so far as the shoals 
reached, and then to swim/ So in regard to the miracle 
of the loaves and fishes, (Matt. xiv. 15,) he says, that Jesus 
probably distributed some loaves and fishes which he had, 
to those who were around him, and thus excited, by his 
example, others among the multitude, who had provisions, 
to distribute them in like manner.* Thiess, in his com- 
mentary on the Acts, explains the miraculous effusion of 
the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Acts, ii. in the follow- 
ing manner : " It is not uncommon," says he, " in those 
countries, for a violent gust of wind to strike on a particu- 
lar spot or house. Such a gust is commonly accompanied 
by the electric fluid ; and the sparks of this are scattered 
all around. These float about the chamber, become 
apparent, and light upon the disciples. They kindle into 
enthusiasm at this; and believe the promise of their mas- 
ter is now to be performed. This enthusiasm spectators 
assemble to witness ; and instead of preaching as before 
m Hebrew, each one uses his own native tongue to pro- 
claim his feelings." 

" I have not followed the words through the whole, but 
have given the substance of Thiess' views, in my two last 
sentences. Such was the outpouring of the Spirit; and 
such the gift of tongues ! 

** The same Thiess,* represents the miraculous cure by 
Peter, of the man who was lame from his brrth, in a very 
singular way. i This man,' says he, < was lame only ac- 
cording to report. He never walked any ; so, the people 
believed that he could not walk. Peter and John, being 
naore sagacious, threatened him. ' In the name of the 
Messiah/ said they, 'stand up.* The word Messiah had 
a magical power. He stood up. Now one saw that he 
could walk. To prevent the compassion of men from 
being turned into rage, (at his deceit,) he chose the most 
sagacious party, and connected himself with the Apos- 
tles." 

" The case of Ananias falling down dead, is thus rep- 
resented by the same writer : " Ananias fell down terri- 

r Pref. to edit, of Ernesti Inst. Interpret, p. 12. 16. s Ibid. 

/ CouiBQ. on ch. ft. 



31 

fied ; but probably he was carried out and buried, while 
still alive." 

" Heinrichs, however, who produces this comment of 
Thiess, relates another mode of explaining the occurrence 
in question; viz. that Peter slabbed Ananias', "which," 
says Heinrichs, " does not at all disagree with the vehe- 
ment and easily exasperated temper of Peter.'*" 

" De V/ette, professor of Theology at the University of 
Berlin." " in his book de morte Christi expiatoria, (on the 
atonement of Christ ,) represents Christ as disappointed 
that the Jews would not hearken to him as a moral teacher 
simply ; which was the first character he assumed. Christ 
then assumed the character of a prophet, and asserted his 
divine mission, in order that the Jews might be induced to 
listen to him. Finding that they would not do this, and 
that tliey were determined to destroy him, in order not to 
lose the whole object of his mission, and to convert neces- 
sity into an occasion of giving himself credit, he gave out, 
that his death itself would be expiatory." 

Such are the comments of Unitarians on the Scriptures \ 
And such are the doctrines they wish us to believe ! But 
we cannot be surprized that men who degrade the Son of 
God to a level with themselves, should attempt to render 
the sacred writings ridiculous, and the Author of them 
, I shudder at the thought. 

It is worthy of observation, that, if the friends and min- 
isters of Christ are now called upon to defend his divinity, 
1 1 is Apostles, and their immediate successors, were called 
upon to prove his humanity. The miracles which he per- 
formed, so far transcended the power of a human being, 
that many heretics asserted his Divinity alone. 

Nicolaus lived in the Apostolic age, and was among the 
first who gave trouble to the Church. He must, however, 
rather be considered as the occasion, than the founder of 
those horrible immoralities which were afterwards prac- 
tised by the Sect of the Nicolaitans, and were condemned 
by our Lord himself.* One of the tenets held by these 
heretics was, that Christ did not appear, or suffer in the 
flesh. 1 " This sect was afterwards lost among the numer- 

u Nov. Test. Koppianum, vol. iii. Partic. ii. pp. 355 — 357, &c 
v Rev. ii. 6. 15. w Tertul. de Prescript, p. 214. B, 



32 

ous divisions of the Gnostics. The Docetae, the Menan- 
drians, the Cerinthians, the Saturnians, the Valentinians, 
the Marcionites, the Basilidians, and others in the first 
and second centuries, most of whom partook of the Gnos- 
tic heresy,* denied the humanity of Christ, believing him 
to be a spiritual being, or ceon, who entered into the man 
Jesus at his baptism, and left him before his crucifixion. 
The Docetee asserted, that his appearance was a mere 
phantasm, without a human frame 5 the Basilidians, that 
Simon, the Cyrenian, suffered in his stead. It is asserted 
by the early fathers of the Church/ that St. John, at the 
request of the Bishops of Asia, wrote his gospel against 
Cerinthius and Ebion ; the last of whom asserted that 
Christ was a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary. It is 
probable that St. John had these heretics in view, when 
he wrote his Epistle ; for he says, " every spirit that con- 
fesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of 
God. j;z Tertullian, who flourished in the second century, 
confuted these and other heretics, in two treatises, de Re- 
surrectione Camis, and de Came Christi. 

I will conclude these general observations, with the 
character of the ever-blessed Redeemer, so emphatically 
described by Bishop Hall, in his Contemplations." 

When the Saviour of the World rode into Jerusalem 
upon an ass, 6 and the multitude cried " Hosanna to the 
Son of David," all the city was moved, saying, Who is 
this ? " The attendant disciples could be at no loss for 
an answer ; for which of the prophets had not put it in 
their mouths? Who is this? Ask Moses, and he shall 
tell you — The seed of the woman that shall break the ser- 
pent's head. Ask your father Jacob, and he shall tell 
you— The Shiloh of the tribe of Judah* Ask David, 
and he shall tell you — The King of Glory. e Ask Isaiah, 
and he shall tell you — Emanuel ; Wonderful ; Counsel- 
lor ; The Mighty God; The Everlasting Father; The 
Prince of Peace/ Ask Jeremiah, and he shall, tell you — 

x Mosheim's Eccl. His. I. 136. 

y See 1st Centurv, Art. Cerintbus. z 1 John, iv. 3. 

a Bishop Hall's Works, vol. II. p. 133. fol. ed. 

b Zech. ix. 9. Malt, xxi. 1—11. c Gen. Hi. 15. 

d Gen. xlix. 10. e Ps. xxiv. 7. 10. / Isa. vii. 14. ix. 6. 



The Branch of David. The Lord our Righteousness, e 
Ask Daniel, and he shall tell you — The Messiah. h Ask 
Hosea, and he shall tell you — The Lord God of Hosts — 
the Lord is his Memorials Ask John the Baptist, and he 
shall tell you — The Lamb of God. k Ask the God of the 
Prophets, He hath told you, This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased— hear ye him. 1 Ask even the 
powers of darkness themselves — they have been compel- 
led to exclaim, I know thee who thou art, the Holy One 
of God. m 

g Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, h Dan. ix. 25, 26. i Hos. xii. 5. 

k John. i. 36. I Matt. Hi. 17. xrii. 5. m Luke,iv. 34. 



34 

CHAPTER II. 
FIRST CENTURY. 

SECT. I. 

SIMON MAGUS. 

IT is recorded by St. Luke,« that Simon Magus, a 
celebrated Samaritan Sorcerer, who was blasphemously 
called " the great power of God," received Christian bap- 
tism at the hands of Philip, the Deacon. His conversion, 
however, being hypocritical, he impiously attempted to 
purchase Apostolic power, with money. He was reproved 
by St. Peter, and returned to his wicked practises. My 
object in mentioning this Impostor's name and blasphemy 
is, to state, upon the authority of Ireneus 6 and Epipha- 
nius, c that he declared to the Samaritans, he was the Fa- 
ther ; to the Jews, that he was the Son descended from 
heaven, and to the Gentiles that he was the Holy Ghost. 
" From this Impostor's pretensions, of being Father, Son 
and Holy Ghost, we may learn this one thing, viz. that 
the eternal Divinity of these three Persons was, at that 
time, [A. D. 34,] the received doctrine of the Church ; 
otherwise he had exposed, and ruined his own cause, in 
assuming to himself, the character of all Three." d 



a Acts viii. b Lib. i. cap. 20. c Lib. i. torn. 2. 

d Stackhouse's Body of Div. Parti, ch 6. p. 135. See Mosheim's 
Ecel. Hist. i. p. 140. £useb. Hist. Eccl. Lib. ii, cap. i. 12, 13. 



35 



PHtLO JUDEUS. 

Philo, an Alexandrian Jew, flourished, A. D. 40. He 
was a Platonic Philosopher, and was held in great repute 
among his countrymen. When Caius Caligula was mad 
enough to insist upon receiving divine honors, and had 
ordered his statue to be placed in the Temple at Jerusa- 
lem, Philo was deputed by the Jews, to remonstrate with 
the Emperor against die profanation. Me is the author 
of seeral works of celebrity/ Ashe lived in the age of 
Christ's sojournment upon earth, was cotemporary ;th 
the Apostles, and is said to have conversed with St. Peter, 
it is probable, he became acquainted with the principles 
of the Christian religion, and drew, from that source, many 
terms which belong, solely, to the nature and character of 
Christ. 

The celebrated Mythologist, Mr. v Bryant, has published 
c< the sentiments of Phiio Judeus, concerning the Logos, 
or Word of God;" and compared his writings with the 
Scriptures. To this valuable, and interesting work, I refer 
the reader for the following extracts : 

The Logos is described by Philo, as the Son of God — 
of a divine nature — the Son of God the Father./ Mark, 
i. 1. Luke, iv 41. Acts, viii. 37- John, i. 34. 

As the second Divinity," John, i. - 1. 1 Cor. i. 24. the 
first begotten of God. A Heb. i. 6. Col i, 15. 

The Image and Likeness of God,' Col. i. 15. HeD. i„ 
3. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 

Superior to the Angels.-? Heb. i. 4. 6. 

Superior to all things in the world.* Heb. ii. 8. 

The Instrument, by whom the world was oiatTe.* John, 
i. 3. 1 Cor. viii 6, Heb. i. 2. 10. 

The great Substitute of God ^ Eph. iii. 9. Phil. ii. 7. 
John, xvii. 4. John, i. 3. 

e Euseb. Hist. Eccl. Lib. 2. cap. 4. 6. 16, 17, 18. 

/ Page 107. g p. 108. k ibid. i p. m. j p. 110. 

ftp. 111. /ibid. mp, 112. 



The Light ot the world, and intellectual Sun. n John, 
i. 4. 9. viii. 12. 1 Pet. ii. 9. 

The Logos only can see God.* John, vi. 46. i. 13. 

He nas God for his portion, and resides in him .^ John, 
i. 18. xiv. 11. 

He is the most ancient of God's i*orks, and was before 
all things.? John, i. 2. xvii. 5. 24. 2 Tim. i. 9. Heb. 
i. 2. 

The Logos esteemed the same as God. r Mark, ii. 7- 
Rom. ix. 5. Phil. ii. 6. 

The Logos LternalS John, xii. 34. 2 Tim. i. 19. iv. 
18. Heb. i. 8. Apoc. x. 6. 

Omniscient; he sees all things/ Heb. iv. 12, 13. 
Apoc. ii. 23. 

He supports the \vorld. u John, iii. 35. Pleb. i. 3. 
Col. i. 17. 

The Logos nearest to God, without any separation ; 
being as it were fixed and founded upon the only true and 
existing Deity, nothing coming between to disturb that 
unity. v John, i 18. x. 30. xiv. 11. xvii. 11. 

The Logos free from all taint of sin, either voluntary 
or involuntary . w John, viii. 46. Heb. ix. 14. 1 Pet. 
ii. 22. 

" Such," says Mr. Bryan*,* ''is the attestation of 
Philo Judeus; which must be esteemed of the greatest 
consequence. For he lived in the time of our Saviour, 
and of his Apostles; and their doctrines he has manifestly 
borrowed. They are not confined to any particular part 
of his works; but are to be found in different treatises: 
An<l, I have produced them in his own words to the read- 
er ;* and much more I might have produced; but these, 
to which 1 have applied, seem sufficient. His evidence is 
plain ; and though he was in general, much given to ab- 
struse and mystical notions, yet in these instances he is 
perfectly precise, and clear, and speaks without disguise 
the opinion of those, from whom he got his information : 

n p. 113. o p. 114. pp. 115. q p. 115. r p. 117. 
3 p. 118. /p. 119. up. 120. v Page 121 w p. 122. 
x Page 43. y Mr. B. gives tie ©rigiaal Greek. 



.and aflbrds us sometimes the language, as well as the sei> 
timents, of the Apostles.' 72 

If the founder of Christianity; and the first preachers of 
the Gospel, taught the people that, the Logos is the Son 
of God, as to his nature or Essence, and the second Divi- 
nity as to order ; the Father heing the fountain of the 
Godhead— that he is Eternal, and the maker and support- 
er of all things — that he is esteemed the same as God, 
because nothing can come between the Father and the 
Son, to disturb their Unity— I think the Ministers of the 
ever-blessed Jesus . may venture to do the same ; and to 
worship him without fear of idolatry, or of subtracting 
from the One God, the worship whin we acknowledge to 
be due to Him alone. If such were the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, while Christ was upon the earth, and while his 
Apostles lived, they ought, unquestionably, to be the doc- 
trines of his disciples at this day. 



CERINTHUS. 

This heresiarch lived in the Apostolic Age ; about A. D. 
GO. lie was born a Jew, and studied philosophy at Alex- 
andria. He attempted to combine the doctrines of Christ 
with the opinions and errors of the Jews and Gnostics, a 
and founded the heresy which bears his name. He denied 
the proper divinity of our Lord, making Jesus and Christ, 
two distinct persons 5 Jesus, a man born of Joseph and 
Mary, and Christ, a celestial Spirit, or ccon, who entered 
into him at his baptism, and left him at his crucifixion. 
Ireneus, a disciple of Polycarp, the diiciple of St. John, 
asserts that this Apostle wrote his gospel to refute the 
errors of Cerinthus, and other heretics, at the solicitation 
of the Bishops of Asia. 6 Victorinus Petavionensis, who 

2 See Gray's connection between Sacred and Profane Literature, 
p. 255. Magee on Atonement and Sacrifice, pp. 161, 162. Am. Ed. 

a Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. i. 144. 

b Iren. Adv. Hgeres. lib. iii. cap. xi. p. 188. See Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 
Irb. iii. cap. 28. gr. vel 25 Han. Lib. vii cap. 25, gr. vel 24. Han 

D 



83 

flourished, A. D. 290, states the same fact. c Julian, the 
Apostate, who died, A. D. 363, asserts that St. John, per- 
ceiving that the persuasion of Christ's being God, pre- 
vailed among the Christians, he took upon him to assert 
the same thing in his gospel to humour them, and to get 
himself reputation/ Jerome, who flourished A. D. 420, 
and Epiphanius, of the same age, assert that St. John 
wrote his gospel against these heretics/ From these 
authorities we may conclude that, St. John wrote his gos- 
pel against the impugner's of our Lord's proper divinity, 
and against those who denied that he had come in the 
flesh. Or, in other words, that he wrote to prove the two 
natures in Christ./ The testimony of Julian, an enemy 
to Christ, is important, for he charges the Apostle with 
having introduced the divinity of Christ into his Gospel, 
merely to please the people. This proves that St. John's 
Gospel, was acknowledged, in that age, to contain an 
account of our Lord's Divinity. From these facts, we 
derive the fullest assurance, that, as St. John wrote his 
gospel to refute the heresies of his time, the two natures 
in Christ was the faith of the Apostolic Church. " Christ" 
was " the Son of the living God,"? who, for our sakes, 
" was made flesh and dwelt among us," A as the incarnate 
God,* " in whom dwelt all the fulness of the godhead 
bodily."* 

The Emperor Julian, bears other testimony to our 
Lord's divinity. He is a competent witness ; having been 
educated in the Christian faith, and apostatised when he 
ascended the throne. He says to the Alexandrians; 
" Neither of these [the Sun and the Moon] have ye the 
confidence to worship. But this Jesus, whom neither ye 

c Victorin. in Apocalyps. Bibl. P. P. Tom. i. p. 576. 

d Julian apud Cyril, lib. x. p. 327 

e Hieron. Prolog, in Matt. p. 3. opp. Tom. iv. Epiph. Haeres. 
lib. ii. p. 423. See Waterland on the Trinity, p. p. 246—275. Mil- 
ner's Church Hist. i. p. p. 140, 141. Stackhouses Body of Divinity, p. 
i. ch. 6. p. 136. 

/ John i. 1. 14. g Matt. xvi. 16. 

h John i. 14. i 1 Tim. iii. 16. 

jttol.ii.-* 



39 

nor your fathers ever saw, you maintain to be God, and 
the Logos, or Word." 2 



EBION. 

Ebion, a disciple of Cerinthus the heresiarch, was the 
founder of the Ebionite Heresy, and flourished, A. D. 72. 
This heresy consisted in believing Christ to be a mere 
man ; in denying the atonement, and in professing justifi- 
cation by the works of the law.™ St. Ignatius, the Martyr, 
who flourished in this century, and whom I shall have 
occasion to speak of by and by, clearly refutes the Ebion- 
ites, although he does not mention them by name. "Some 
there are," says this holy and Apostolic man, " who carry 
about the name of Christ in deceitfulness, but do things 
unworthy of God j whom ye must flee, as ye would do so 
many wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite 
secretly ; against whom ye must guard yourselves, as men 
hardly to be cured. There is one Physician, both fleshly 
and spiritual ; made and not made ; God incarnate; true 
life in death ; both of Mary and of God ; first Passible, 
then Impassible 5 even Jesus Christ our Lord. ??w Euse- 
bius says, the opinions of the Ebionites were deemed 
heretical because they taught that Christ was born of Jo- 
seph and Mary, and that he was a mere man. Some of 
the Ebioniles, however, believed in the incarnation.? 

From these facts it appears that, the primitive Church 
ccndemned as heretics, those who denied the doctrine of 
an incarnate God, of Christ both God and Man: That as 
the Ebionites denied his divinity, they were condemned 
by Ignatius, who was cotemporary with the Apostles, and 

■ I Jul. Epis. LI. p. 434. See Bryant on the authenticity of the 
Scriptures, p 122. 

m Tertui. de Came Christi, cap. 14. Milner's Church Hist. I. p. 
138 Euseb. Eccl. Hist, lib iii. cap. 27, gr. vel. 24, Han. 

n Ignat Epist ad Ephes. 7. 

9 Euseb. H. E. lib. vi. cap. 17 gr. vel. 16, Han. 

p Origen contr. Cels.p. 272. 



40 

who laid down his life at the stake, for this faith s \ deliver- 
ed to the saints." 

The Apostles gave very particular instructions to the 
Church on this subject; " Mark them which cause divi- 
sions and offences," says St. Paul,* " contrary to the doc- 
trine which ye have learned, and avoid them: for they 
that are such, serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their 
own belly, and by good words, and fair speeches deceive 
the hearts of the simple." And the same Apostle, writing 
to the Galatian converts, says, " there be some that trouble 
you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Cut though 
we, or an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel 
unto yeu, let him be accursed. " r And again, in his 
charge to Titus/ he says, " a man that is an heretic, after 
the first and second admonition, reject; knowing that he 
that is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of 
himself." 

The Apostle and Evangelist St. John, who, as we have 
seen, wrote against the impugners of our Lord's divinity, 
says, " If there come any unto you, and bring not this 
doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him 
God speed ; for he that biddeth him God speed, is parta- 
ker of his evil deeds."* 

" If there come any unto you, and bring not this doc- 
trine. " u What doctrine? In the preceding verse, the 
Apostle calls it the " doctrine of Christ." Ifwebearin 
mind that St. John wrote against the impugners of cur 
Lord's divinity, and that he proved the two natures in 
Christ, we can be at no loss to know what the (i doctrine 
of Christ" means. St. John himself has expressly declar- 
ed it. That Christ, or the Logos, was in the beginning 
with God, and that the Logos was God. 1 ' That the Logos 

q Rom. xvi. 17, 18. r Gal. i. 7,8, 9. 

s Tit. iii. 10, 11. See likewise 1 Thn. vi. 2—5. 2 Tim. ii. 16, 17, IS. 

t 2. John, 10, 11. u ver. 10. 

v John, i. 1. The interpretation of this verse by the Unitarians is 
fanciful. " In the beginning," they say, means, the beginning of the 
Christian dispensation, because eternity can have no beginning. But 
we have the same expression in Gen. i. i. "In the beginning God 
created the heaven and the earth." Does not this clearly mean that. 
when nothing existed but God, He created the heaven and the earth 3 
And so in John, «. 1. " In the beginning" means that, when nothing 



41 

made all things, and that nothing was made, but what 
was made by the Logos ; w that this Logos, who was from 
the beginning, God, was made flesh, and dwelt among 
us f and being the only begotten Son of God, he hath 
seen the Father,? whom no man can see, and live. 2 We 
believe, and are sure, said the Apostle Peter, that thou, 
[Jesus] art that Christ, [that should come,] the Son of the 
living God. a Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus 
is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father 
and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath 
not the Father : but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath 
the Father also. Let that, therefore, abide in you which 
ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have 
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall 
continue in the Son, and in the Father. 6 

St. Peter, writing on the same subject, says, " but there 
were false prophets also among the people, even as there 
shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring 
in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought 
them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And 
many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of 
whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." c 

Asa proof that the Apostles and Apostolic men, acted 
conformably with the instructions they had given, it is 
related by Ireneus, on the authority of Polycarp, the dis- 
ciple of St. John, that this Apostle going into the bath at 
Ephesus, and rinding Cerinthus, the Heresiarch there, 
immediately left it, lest the bath should fall, from the pre- 
sence of this enemy to the truth. And it is likewise said 
of Polycarp, that Marcion meeting with him, said to the 
holy martyr,, u do you know us ?" he replied, " I know 
thee for the first begotten son of Satan."* 

existed but God, the Word was with God, because the Word was 
God. Besides, St. Paul asserts that Christ existed " before all 
things." Col. i. 17. and Christ declares that he existed before the 
world. John, xvii. 5. 

w John, i. 3. x ver. 14. y i. 18. vi. 46. 

z Exod. xxxiii. 20. a John, vi. 69. 

b 1 John, ii. 22, 23, 24. c 2 Pet. ii 1, 2. 

d Iren. lib. iii. cap. 3. Euseb. Eccl. His. lib. 4. cap. 14. See 
Horsley's Tracts, p. 166. Milner's Church His. I. pp. 121. 207. 
Waterland on Trinity, p. 252. 
D 2 



& 



CLEMENS ROMANUS. 

St. Clement was born at Rome. He was a distin- 
guished disciple of Christ, and is the same who is recorded 
in the Scriptures,' as the fellow-labourer with St. Paul, 
and one whose name is written in the book of life. This 
Apostolic man was consecrated by St. Peter,/and was the 
third Bishop of Rome after the Apostles, succeeding to 
the care of the undivided Church in the capital of the 
Roman Empire, May 16th, A. D. 91, upon the martyr- 
dom of Cletus. St. Clement was thrown into the sea, 
with an anchor tied to his neck, Nov. 9, A. D. 100. 

It is stated by several of the Ancients^ that the Church 
at Rome was founded by the united exertions of St. Peter 
and St. Paul. The Church of the circumcision was com- 
mitted to St. Peter, and that of the uncircu incision to St. 
Paul.* That Paul founded the gentile Church at Rome, 
appears from the Scripture. St. Luke states in the Acts, 
that when St. Paul first came to Rome, the Jews rejected 
his doctrine,* when he declared that the " salvation of 
God was sent unto the gentiles, and that they would hear 
it."* After the final destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, 
the partition wall between the Jew and the Gentile being 
broken down/ the Church was united under Clemens 
Romanus. m 

This distinguished Christian is said to have written two 
Epistles to the Corinthians. But as the first only is ac- 
knowledged to be genuine, I shall confine my remarks to 
This alone. 

e Phil iv. 3. / Tertul. de Prescript. Haeret. c. 32. p. 213. 

g Iren. Adv. Haeres. 1. 3. c. 3. p. 232 Epiphan. Hajres. sxvii. p. 61. 
Cai. adv. Procul — Dionys. Epis. ad Rom. apud Euseb. 1. 2. c. 25. p, 
63. apud Cave's Lives, II. 188. 

h Gal.ii. 7. i Acts, xxviii. 23, 24. 29, k Ibid. 28. 30, 31, 

I Eph. ii. 14. 

m Euseb. His. Eccl. lib. 3. cap. 37, gr. vel 33, Han. See Lardner's 
Works, I p. 291,4toed. 



43 

This Epistle was written to the Church at Corinth, 
about A. D. 96, n and was deemed by the early Christians, 
so truly evangelical and apostolical, that we are told by 
Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, A. D. 180, it was publicly 
read in ail the Churches. Eusebius, speaking of this 
Epistle says, " one undoubted Epistle there is of his ex- 
tant, both worthy and notable, the which he wrote from 
Rome unto Corinth, when sedition was raised among the 
Corinthians : the same Epistle we have known to have 
been read publicly in many Churches of old, and amongst 
as also."P I have stated these particulars, that no doubt 
might remain on the mind of the reader, of the authenti- 
city of this Epistle, and of the credit to which it is so 
justly entitled. , 

In this Epistle to the Corinthians, which we find was 
publicly read in the Churches, as late as the fourth cen- 
tury, this holy and Apostolic man, says, a The Sceptre of 
the Majesty of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came not in 
the show of pride, and arrogance, though he could have 
done so ; but with humility, as the Holy Ghost had before 
spoken concerning him." And then he copies the 53 ch. 
£ -f Isaiah, as describing the humiliation and death of our 
blessed Lord.? 

From this quotation it evidently appears that, St. Cle- 
ment believed in the essential divinity of Christ, and that 
the Corinthian Church held the same faith. If he had, 
wi;h the Arians, considered hitn as a super-angelic crea- 
ture, he would not have said, though he could have done 
so, because, this implies independence, but all the hosts of 
heaven are dependent upon God. If he had, with the 
Socinians, considered him a mere man, he would have 
used some less dignified appellation than the sceptre of the 
Majesty of God, a title greatly supeiior to any that ever 
was bestowed upon any of the prophets. If Clement had 
not believed in the essential divinity of Christ, he would 
not have believed that he couid have come with power and 

n Lardner's Works, I. p. 292. 

o Euseb. Hist. Eccl. Lib. 4. cap. 23. gr. vel 22 Han. Lardner's 
Works, 1 p. 291. 
p Eu eb. Eccl. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 14. 
q Clem. Epist. adCorintb. S. 16. Archbishop Wake's translation. 



44 

glory, instead of humility and abasement. And this faith 
is warranted by Christ's own expression : " O Father, glo- 
rify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I 
had with thee before the world was ; r and if we compare 
this text with Phil. ii. 5, 6, 7, we shall see that their faith 
is confirmed by the Apostle " Christ Jesus, who, be- 
ing in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal 
with God, but made himself of no reputation ;" [eauton 
ekenose, literally, he emptied himself of that glory which 
made him equal with God, in his nature and essence, and 
which he had with the Father before the world was ; r ] 
K and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made 
in the likeness of men." 5 Comparing the latter clause of 
this verse with Gal. iv. 4, " God sent forth his Son made 
of a woman," we may ask, if Christ was a man, how could 
he otherwise have been born ? And we need no revelation 
to tell us, if he was the Son of Joseph and Mary, that he 
was born of a woman, and was made in the likeness of 
men. But as he was God by nature and essence, being in 
a peculiar sense the only begotten Son of God, he could 
have come with glory transcending the knowledge of man. 
Or he could have assumed the angelic nature. But St. 
Paul informs us/ that " he took not on him the nature of 
angels; but the seed of Abraham." This text further 
proves the truth of Clement's faith, that Christ could have 
eome, in glory and power, instead of humility and sorrow ; 

t John,xvii. 5. 

s Professor Stuart, after laborious examination, gives the following 
as the translation which the Greek not only admits, but demands : 
" Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus ; who being 
in the condition of God did not regard hi* equality with God as an 
object of solicitous desire, but humbled himself, (assumed an inferior 
or humble station,) taking the condition of a servant, being made 
after the similitude of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he 
exhibited his humility by obedience, even to the death of the cross." 
Phil. ii. 5—8. Letters to Channing, p. 88. third Ed. See Adam 
Clarke on the place. It is here worthy of remark that, the Churches 
of Vienne and Lyons, in A. D. 177, sent an account of the sufferings 
of their martyrs to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia. In this Epistle 
they use the words nearly as in our common translation. See Euseb. 
Hist. Eccl. lib. 5. c. 11. Han. And they are so translated by Lardner, 
Works, vol. I. p. 361. Middleton on the Greek Article, pp. 537, 
538, 539. t Heb. ii. 16. 



for as the lesser cannot assume the higher nature, so it is 
evident that Christ was superior to the Angels, and there- 
fore was not man. 

St. Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel,'* and 
was a man of learning as well as a Christian and an Apos- 
tle. Would he, or would any man of common sense, 
seriously tell the people that Christ was made in the like- 
ness of men, 73 if he was no more than man ? Were not 
their own eyes sufficient to satisfy them on this subject, 
without St. Paul's solemn declaration ? This would have 
been trifling with the understanding of the Philippians,and 
beneath his character and#attainments. But as Christ was 
" God manifest in the flesh, " w St. Paul was solicitous to 
impress upon their minds, his condescension and grace, in 
emptying himself of his glory, assuming our nature, and 
making atonement for the sins of the world. This is the 
mystery, which St. Paul calls the great mystery, 3 ' and 
which they could not have discovered by any effort of 
their own minds, therefore, it was necessary that it should 
he revealed to them by divine inspiration. But they would 
have deemed themselves insulted to have been told, even 
by so distinguished an Apostle as St. Paul, that a man was 
made like a man. 

It will not be denied by the impugners of our Lord's 
divinity, that Christ knew the import of every word he 
spoke, and, that, in his human nature he was too honest, 
and too pious, wilfully to mislead the people, by the ambi- 
guity of his language, upon so awful, and so important a 
subject. He is the way, and the truths and spoke the 
words of God, the Father, 2 whose word is truth;" and, 
therefore, when he claims the divinity, we must believe 
and adore. 

Let us seriously examine and weigh the import of the 
following texts : 

Christ " being in the form of God, thought it not rob- 
bery to be equal icith God." & 

u Acts, xxii. 3. v Phil. h\ 7. 

w 1 Tim. Hi. 16. x Ibid. y John, xiv. & 

s ver. 24. ch. xvii. 14. 18. a Ibid. 17. 

b Phil. if. 6. 



46 

" The Jews sought the more to kill him, because he 
said that God was his Father, making himself equal with 
God." c 

u I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up 
stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many 
good works have I showed you from my Father 5 for 
which of those works do ye stone me ? The Jews an- 
swered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not ; 
but for blasphemy ; and because that thou, being a man, 
makest thyself God." And immediately after he says, 
" If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But 
if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works : that 
ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I 
in him. Therefore they sought again to take him ;" d for 
making himself God, by declaring " the Father is in me, 
and I in him," as he had said before, " I and my Father 
are one." Upon this declaration a question presents itself: 
If Christ were a creature, would he have dared to have 
named himself before God the Father ? " I and my Fa- 
ther." And would St. Paul have dared to have placed 
his name first : " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
the love of God," &c. e But as " God was in Christ re- 
conciling the world to himself,"/ so Christ declared, " I 
am in the Father, and the Father in me,"? and the God- 
head one. 

" The High Priest asked him [Christ] and said unto 
him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And 
Jesus said, I am," 4 This corresponds with our Lord's 
answer to the woman of Samaria: " The woman saith 
unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called 
Christ : when he is come, he will tell us all things, 
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he." 1 

These texts, beside many others, afford conclusive evi- 
dence of Christ's divinity. The great Apostle of the gen- 
tiles asserts that, Christ " thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God 5" or as it is rendered by Professor Stuart, k 

c John, v. 18. xix. 6, 7. d John, x. 30—39. 

e 2 Cor. xiii. 14. / 2 Cor. v. 19. 

g John, x. 38. xiv. 11. See on this text, Jones on the Trinity. 
h Mark, xiv. 61, 62. i John, iv. 25, 26. 

k See page 44. 



" did not regard his equality with God as an object of 
solicitous desire," If Christ were a mere creature, how- 
ever near he might approach the throne of God, he would 
be guilty of blasphemy if he assumed an equality with his 
Creator. To avoid this difficulty, Dr. Priestley denies St. 
Paul's inspiration, and leaves his followers at liberty, to 
believe his Epistles to be nothing more than a farrago of 
nonsense, and inconclusive reasoning. The Jews assert, l 
that Christ used such expressions of himself as convinced 
them that he assumed the divinity, and made himself equal 
with God. There could be neither mistake in his mean- 
ing, nor misinterpretation of his language : for he spoke 
in the language of the country, and at different times to 
the same purport; and we find that the Jews, more than 
once, were going to stone him, agreeably to their law, 771 
for blasphemy, because, being a man, he made himself 
God. 1 But we are not left to mere inference. He has 
declared himself to be the Son of the Supreme God, in 
such a sense, as to partake of his Essence. And so the 
Jews certainly understood him. When he was arraigned 
before the High Priest, and was desired by him to declare, 
whether he was the Son of the Blessed, he explicitly de- 
clared that he was. Or, in the language of St. Matthew, 
" the High Priest answered and said unto him, I adjure 
thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be 
the Christ, the Son of God ?"■? That is, whether he was 
the Messiah, who was to come, or whether they were still 
to look for another.? It must be observed that, the Jews 
did not deny the divinity of the Christ, but only denied 
that Jesus was the Christ. From our Lord's answer, the 
High Priest understood him to say, that he was this divine 

I John, v. 18. viii. 58, 59. x. 33. Dr. Hales has an excellent note 
on John, x. 31 — 34, " because thou, being a man, makest thyself 
God." He says, ' : that Theos here, should be rendered a God, as 
contrasted with anthropos, a man. Acts, xii. 22. The Jews evidently 
did not mean God the Father, which would be absurd ; but o deuteros 
Theos, the second God, as Philo, the Jew, styled the Logos." Anal, of 
Chron. B. 2. part 2 p. 816. The second God, that is, the second in 
order, the Father being the first, but the Essence the same ; for the 
Jews firmly believed in the Unity of the Godhead. 

m Levit. xxiv. 14. o Mark, xiv. 61, 62, 

P Matt. xxvi. 63. q Luke, vii. 20. 



Personage; but as he believed Jesus to be a mere man, he 
rent his clothes, and said, we need no further witnesses for 
we have heard his !%lasphemy. r 

The Unitarians would make us believe that, when Christ 
is called the Son of God, it implies no more than when we 
are so called, and is an expression of affiliation and sanctity 
of character. But can we possibly suppose that, the Jews 
accused him of blasphemy, and finally crucified him, for 
asserting his sanctity of character? The thing cannot be 
believed.* 

If Christ had been but a mere man, or the most exalted 
creature, and had claimed the Godhead with the Father, 
he would have been obnoxious to Jehovah. He would 
not have been the Son in whom the Father was well 
pleased, and whom the people were commanded to hear ; c 
and he would have been suffered to remain in the grave, 
until the judgement, as an impostor and a blasphemer. 
But God the Father has given us, in the resurrection of 
Christ, the most conclusive evidence of the truth of his 
doctrine and words, and that he was, what he assumed to 
be, in Essence, one with the Father. That God will assu- 
redly punish those >sho attempt to rob him of his honor, or 
his glory , w by appropriating to themselves his titles or 
attributes, we have a remarkable instance in Acts, xii. 21 
— 24. When Herod sat upon his throne, and received the 
adulation of his courtiers, and submitted to be called God, 
without reproving the people for their blasphemy, the 
Angel smote him, and he was eaten by worms, and died. 

We may further remark on Phil. ii. 7, 8, that Christ 
" made himself »of no reputation;" " and being found in 
fashion as a man, he humbled himself/' &c. Jesus Christ 
emptied himself v of the effulgence of his glory which he 
possessed in his divine nature, and humbled himself to a 
level with the creatures whom he had formed. He was 
incarnate, and became subject to death, to which, in his 



r Mark, xiv. 63, 64. 

s u The phrase uioi Theou in the plural, is sometimes used to sig- 
nify Saints or Holy Men : but in the Singular, when it is spoken ol 
Christ, there is no reason to infer that such is ever the meaning in the 
*ew Testament." Middleton on the Greek Article, p. ISO. 

p Matt. in. 17. xvii. 6. u lsa. xlii. S. xlviii. 11. v See page 44. 



49 

divine nature, as the Son of God, he was not liable. St. 
Luke states that, it was not possible for the grave to retain 
him ; w which is a direct proof that he was not, by nature, 
subject to mortality, and, therefore, was not a mere man. 
Besides, if he had been a mere man, or a super-angelic 
creature, he would have exalted his reputation by becom* 
ing the Mediator between God and Man. But as he was 
God, he humbled himself to assume the Mediatorial Office, 
and, therefore, the human nature which he assumed, was 
exalted in heaven.* We may take another view of this 
subject. The utmost exertions that piety can use, can 
neither satisfy ; divine Justice, nor, alone, save the soul alive. 
None can make atonement for himself, or his brother, v 
Moses and the Prophets were saved through the merits 
and efficiency of the great Atonement, 2 which was pre- 
figured by the types of the law; and the Apostles knew no 
other salvation, than through the blood of the cross, pre- 
figured by the sacrificial offerings, and looked, solely, to 
that Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. a 
After we have done all that is commanded us, we are but 
unprofitable servants, and have done no more than our 
duty. 6 We are not saved by any works of righteousness 
of our own, but by the grace and righteousness of Christ ; 
by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost. As it is only through the merits and intercession 
of Jesus Christ, and his sufficient righteousness imputed to 
us, as he bore our sins in his own body on the tree/* that 
we can hope for salvation in the world to come, we can 
readily perceive the extent of his merits, and the love and 
gratitude we owe to him, for his condescension and grace. e 
But if Christ had been a mere man, as the Socinians be- 

w Acts, ii. 24. x Phil. ii. 9, 10. y Ps. xlix. 7. 

s Luke, i. 69, 70. Deut. xviii. 15. Acts, iii. 22, 23, 24. Heb. ix. 15 
—28. John, viii. 56. 

a John, i. 29. 1 Cor. xv. 19. Gal. iii. 8. Heb. xi. xii. 1, 2. 

b Job, xxxv. 7. Luke, xvii. 10. c Titus, iii. 5. 

d 1 Peter, ii. 24. 

e Isa. tiii. John, i. 29. xiv.6. Rom. iii. 24. v. 9, 10, 11. viii. 1. 1 
Cor. i. 30. xv. 3. 2 Cor. v. 21. Gal. iii. 13. Eph. iv. 32. Col. i. 14. 
20. 22. 1 Tim. ii. 5,6. Heb. vii. 25. ix, 22-.-24. x, 4—11. 1 Pet 



iii. 18. 



E 



5U 

lieve ; or if he had been the first, and the best of all crea- 
ted intelligences, as the Arians believe, still he would have 
been but a creature, and, as a creature, bound by the laws 
of creation in obedience to the will of his Creator. There- 
fore, if God had sentf such a creature into the world to 
redeem man/ it would have been his duty to have obeyed, 
if he did not wish to rebel against his Creator and his 
God. There could then have been no merit where there 
was no other choice than between obedience and rebellion ; 
and all that he could have done for msm would have been 
but a mere act of duty. But if we believe, with the Scriptures, 
that Christ subsists in the unity of the Godhead, as the 
second Person of the ever-blessed Trinity, then his merits 
are transcendently displayed in his humiliation and sacri- 
fice. A creature could have been compelled by the un- 
controllable power of God, to have made the atonement ; 
but the Second Person of the Trinity could have been 
moved by no cause acting out of himself, and, therefore, 
the atonement made by Christ, was the result of his own 
ineffable love and goodness to fallen man. The merits of 
Christ, then, are so transcendently great and glorious, that 
man should fall at his feet, and cry out with the royal 
Psalmist ; " what is man, tnat thou art mindful of him ? 
and the Son of Man that thou visitest him?"* And with 
holy Job, " Lord I am vile; I will lay my hand upon my 
mouth ; I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." • 

Further. Upon this passage of St. Clement, the learned 
Bishop of St. Asaph, in one of his Letters to Dr. Priestley, 
says, u I cited the passage, as it stands in our modern co- 
pies. More ancient copies, those which Jerome used, 
instead of kaiper dunamenos, c although he had it in his 
power,' had kaiper panta dunamenos, ' although he had 
all things in his power. This appears from Jerome's 
translation of the passage which is in these words, ' Scep- 
trum Dei, Dominus Jesus Christus non venit in jactantia 
superbise, cum possit omnia."* This is a further confirm- 
ation of the omnipotence, and, consequently, of the essen- 



/ John, iii. 17. iv. 34. v. 36. g John, iii. 16, 17. 

h Ps. viii. 4. » Job, si. 4. xlii. 6. 

k Horsley's Tracts, pp. 131, 132. 



51 

tial divinity of our blessed Lord, as asserted by the primi- 
tive Church. 

In the Recognitions ascribed to Clement, there is this 
passage : " Be baptised in the name of the Most Holy 
Trinity, and then if ye believe with entire faith, and true 
purity of mind, ye also shall expel wicked Spirits and 
demons out of others, and free them from diseases. For 
the demons know and acknowledge them that have devot- 
ed themselves to God, and are sometimes expelled even at 
their presence." l 

It is generally believed that, St. Clement was not the 
author of the Recognitions; they are, however, of ac- 
knowledged antiquity, and are supposed to have beea. writ- 
ten in the second or third century. m This will show that 
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was believed, at that 
time, to be contained in the baptismal sacrament, as apr 
pointed by divine authority. 7 * 



ST. BARNABAS. 

This holy man was a Levite of Cyprus, and was early 
converted to the Christian faith. He became a zealous 
Apostle and fellow-labourer with St. Paul/ with whom 
he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. His name, 
originally, was Joses, but it was changed by the Apostles 
to Barnabas ; i. e. the son of Consolation. So sincere was 
his conversion, and so ardently did he devote himself to 
the service of his Lord, that he sold his land, and laid the 
money at the Apostles feet.? The manner of his death is 
uncertain j, some authorities state that, he was stoned to 
death by the Jews in Cyprus. 

I Clem. Rom. Recog. cap. 33.apud Hale's Anal, of Chron. vol.11 
B. 2, p. 1062. 

m Jortin's Remarks Eccl. Hist. I. p. 215. Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. 
I. p. 1 12. Lardner's Works, I. p. 465. 4to. Ed. 

n Matt, xsviii. 19. See Lardner's Works, I. p. 289. 4to Ed. Cave's 
Lives, II p. 200. 

o Acts, iv. 36, 37. p xv. 35, 36 q iv. 36, 37- 



52 

The only writing attributed to this Apostle, by the pri- 
mitive fathers/ is one with the title of " the Catholic Epis- 
tle of St. Barnabas." It was written A. D. 71, or 72, but 
was not received as an inspired book, when the Canon of 
the New Testament was completed. There were, proba- 
bly, some doubts of its being the genuine production of 
this Apostle, for if that could have been satisfactory ascer- 
tained, its inspiration would not have been doubted, for 
St. Luke declares that, he « was a good man, and full of 
the Holy Ghost." 5 Whether it be his or not, it is of the 
Apostolical age. 

This Epistle contains the following passages : (t The 
Lord was content to suffer for our souls, although he be 
Lord of the whole earth ; to whom God said in the begin- 
ning of the world, Let us make man after our own image 
and likeness.* S. 5. 

" Then he clearly manifested himself to be the Son of 
God. For had he not come in the flesh, how should men 
have be^n able to look upon him, that they might be 
saved ? Seeing if they behold only the sun, which was the 
ivork of his hands," &c. S. 5. 

u For thus the Scripture saith concerning us, where it 
introduceth the Father speaking to the Son; Let us make 
man after our own likeness and similitude," &c. S. 6. 

These quotations show that, the primitive Christians be- 
lieved in the pre-existence of Christ. They likewise show 
that, they believed him to be the Creator of the World. 
Creation is the highest act of omnipotence, and the pecu- 
liar and distinguishing attribute of the Supreme God. 

" All things were made by him, [Christ] and without 
him was not any thing made that was made."" For by him 
were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in 
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or 
dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were 
created by him, and for him : and he is before all things, 
and by him all things consist." 1 ' Compare this with Rev. 
iv. 11. where the four and twenty elders worship the Fa~ 

r Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 2. p. 373. Paris 1629. Orig. con. Cels. lib. 
1. p. 49. Cantab. 1677 } and several others. 
s Acts, xi. 24. t Gen.i. 26 u John, i. 3, 

v Col.i. 16,17. 



53 

ther and say, « Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory 
and honour and power : for thou hast created all things, 
and for thy pleasure they are and were created.'* If all 
things were created by the Father for his pleasure ; and if 
all things were created by ar t d for Christ, there must of 
necessity, either be two supreme Gods, for whose pleasure, 
and honor and glory all things were made in heaven and 
earth, or Christ is one in essence with the Father. Again. 
Christ is before all things, both visible and invisible that 
were created, he must, then, be uncreated, and, therefore, 
God. But the Father saith by his Prophet, 70 " I am the 
Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the hea- 
vens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself " 
If the Supreme God, alone, made all things ; if he made 
them by himself, then is Christ in unity with the Supreme 
God, because all things in heaven and earth were made by 
him, and without him was nothing made.* 



ST. HERMAS. 

(f The Shepherd of St. Hermas" is referred to by Ire- 
neus, Clem, of Alexandria, Origen, Turtullian and others 
of the Ancients. Eusebius states that it was read in the 
Churches.^ Hermas is the same person to whom St. Paul 
sends his salutations, at Rome. 2 It is thought he died 
there, A. D. 81 ; but Lardner places it about 100. 

In his 3rd Book, Simil. 9. S. 12. this primitive Christian 
says ; " The Son of God is indeed more ancient than any 
creature ; insomuch that he was in Council with his Fa- 
ther at the creation of all things;" or as it is in the 
margin, " of all creatures." 

If Christ was more ancient than any creature, it is evi- 
dent that, he was not deemed a creature by St. Hermas, 

w Isa. xliv. 24. 

x See John, i. 3. Wake's translation of the Apostolical Fathers, 
pp. 69. 251. Am. Ed. Lardner's Works, I. p. 283. 4to Ed. 
y Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 3. cap. 3. a Rom. xvi. 14. 

E2 



54 

and if not a creature, he is God. tf the primitive Church 
believed Christ to have been in consultation with the 
Father, at the creation of man, they certainly held the 
Supreme God in too much awe and reverence to suppose, 
that he would consult with any created being about the 
highest act of omnipotence ; the creation of man out of 
the dust of the field." 



PLINY, THE YOUNGER. 

The next evidence I shall adduce is that of a Pagan 
philosopher, a man of distinguished talents in the literary 
world, and greatly esteemed for his amiable and moral 
character. 

Ccecilius Secundus Pliny, a disciple of the celebrated 
Quintilian, and usually called the Younger, to distinguish 
him from the Naturalist, was Pro-Consul of Pontus and 
Bithynia, and died, A. D. 113. A few years before his 
death, he addressed a Letter to the Emperor Trajan, soli- 
citing instructions as to the course to be pursued with the 
Christians. He states that, in their examinations, * they 
affirmed that the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, 
that they met on a certain stated day, before it was light, 
and addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ , 
as to some God." 6 

When Pliny wrote this letter, St. Paul had been dead 
about forty years, and St. John was scarcely cold in his 
grave. This letter affords us the testimony of an ene- 
my, that Christ was worshipped as God. at this very early 
period of the Christian Church. We may then safely 
conclude, that this practice was derived from the Apostles, 
and was the faith and custom of the Church. I view this 
fact, so well established, as perfectly conclusive on the 
subject ; and as superior to all the arguments that the 

a See Wake's Apostolical Fathers, pp. 87. 281. A.m. Ed. Lardner's 
Works, I. p. 304. 4to Ed. 

o Plin. ad Traj. lib. x. epis. 97. See Milner's Church Hist. I. p. 
147. 



55 

Unitarians can bring against our Lords divinity. The 
faith of the primitive Christians, was a belief in the Deity 
of Jesus, and for this faith, men, women and children were 
murdered by heathens and Jews. 

Tertullian, a Presbyter of Carthage, who b*id been con- 
verted from Idolatry, makes the same quotation from 
Pliny, in his Apology for the Christians, which he dedi- 
cated to the Roman Magistrates, during the reign of 
Severus. This proves that, the Consul's statement was 
acknowledged by the Christians to be true, or Tertullian 
would not have" introduced it in their defence. It like- 
wise proves that, the Christians, until his time, continued 
to worship Christ as God. He died A. D., 2l6. c 



ST. IGNATIUS, Bisltop of Antioch. 

The Church at Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, where 
the Apostles were first called Christians* was founded by 
St. Peter and St. Paul ; the former labouring among the 
Jews, the latter among the Gentiles. When the Apostles 
left the city to plant Churches in other places, the care of 
the Jewish converts was transferred by St. Peter to Euo- 
dius ; e and that of the Gentiles by St. Paul to Ignatius./ 
On the death of Euodius, the Christian converts were 
united into one church under Ignatius.^ 

This holy man was a native of Syria, and was acquaint- 
ed with some of the Apostles/* He was consecrated by 
St. Paul, Bishop of Antioch, A. D. 69,* and suffered mar- 
tyrdom for the faith, being torn to pieces by wild beasts, at 
Rome, Dec. 20, A. D. 107, seven vears after the death of 
St. John, the Evangelist. Thus cotemporary and conver- 

c Tert Apolog. cap. 2. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 3. cap. 33, vel 30. 
Han. 

d Acts, xi. 26. e Phil. iv.2. 

/ Const. Apos. lib. 7. c. 47. p. 451. 

g Cave's Lives, II. p. 222. 

h Cbrysost. Horn, in Ignat. I. p. 499. Socrat. Hist. Eccl. lib. vi, 
cap. 8. 

t Cave's Lives, II. p. 222. 



56 

sant with the Apostles, and with those who had seen the 
Lord, we have no reason to doubt that his doctrine was' 
such as he had learned from them, and such as they had 
approved. 1 

The following Proem to his Epistle to the Ephesians, 
shows that this holy and apostolical man, believed in the 
essential divinity of Christ : 

" Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Chqrch 
which is at Ephesus, in Asia, most deservedly happy ; 
being blessed through the greatness and fulness of God 
the Father, and predestinated before the world began, that 
it should be always unto an enduring and unchangeable 
glory ; being united and chosen through his true passion, 
according to the will of the Father, and Jesus Christ our 
God ; all happiness by Jesus Christ, and his undefiled 
Grace." l 

To show the two natures in Christ, that he was perfect 
God and perfect Man, this holy martyr says in the same 
Epistle, S. 7- " There is one Physician, both fleshly and 
spiritual; made and not made ; God incarnate ; true life 
in death ; both of Mary and of God : first passive, then 
impassible; even Jesus Christ ourLord." m 

This extract, I think, is evidence that the holy father 
was conversant with the writings of the Apostles and 
Evangelists, and had received, and taught, with the Scrip- 
tures, the doctrine of Christ's essential divinity. 

" The Word was made flesh." John, i. 14. The 
Logos assumed onr nature in the womb of the Virgin. 

" God was manifested in the flesh." 1 Tim. iii. 16. 
The Godhead was united to Manhood. " They shall call 
his name Emanuel, which is, being interpreted, God with, 
us." Isa. vii. 14. Matt. i. 23. God shall dwer! upon 
earth in the likeness of sinful men. His name was called 
Emanuel, that it " might be fulfilled which was spoken of 
the Lord by the Prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be 
with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call 
his name Immanuei :" That it might be distinctly known, 
that he was the Being of whom the Prophet spoke. Im- 

k See Lardner's Works, I. p. 313. 4to Ed. 
I Wake's Apostolical Fathers, p. 191. Am. Ed. 
m Ibid. p. 194. 



57 

menu-el, literally means " The strong God with ns;" the 
irue God, incarnate.* 1 

" He [Christ] took part of flesh and blood." Heb. ii. 
14. God incarnate, perfect God and perfect man 5 there- 
fore, says Ignatius, Christ is " God Incarnate." 

The testimony of the Prophets and the Apostles was 
sufficient authority to this pious and holy martyr. He be- 
lieved the Scriptures, and the doctrine he had learned of 
the Apostles, and was satisfied that, u God himself Ap- 
peared in the form of a rrlGh." 

More authority is due to Ignatius, in matters of faith 
and doctrine, tnan to any human being now in existence. 
He not only lived in the Apostolic Age, and received his 
doctrines from the Apostles themselves, but the miracu- 
lous influences of the Holy Spirit, certainly continued 
with the Church in the time of this holy man, and, proba- 
bly, for some time longer.*' Now it may be asked, for 
what purpose was the influence of the Holy Spirit given 
to the Church, if it was not to " guide it into all truth?" * 
The miraculous operations which the primitive Christians 
were able to perform, through the influence of the Holy 
Ghost, were unquestionably intended to confirm the truth 
of the Christian religion, and the faith of the Church. 
And we cannot believe that, the divinely instituted teach- 
ers of Christianity, who, we may reasonably suppose, had 
as large a share of the Holy Spirit, as ordinary Christians, 
were ignorant of the God whom they worshipped. We 
deem it impossible for them to have taught the people a lie, 
or to have professed what they did not believe. For their 
faith, they laid down their lives at the stake. We cannot 
then, believe, that they would deliberately declare Christ 
to be the Incarnate God, if it was not the acknowledged 
and orthodox faith of the Church. Besides, the unifor- 
mity of faith professed by the Churches, in the earliest 

n See Pearson on the Creed, I. Art. 2. p. 137. Dr. A. Clarke, oa 
Matt. i. 23. Horje Solitarige, 1. 65. 

Wake's Apos. Fath. p. 198. Am. Ed. 

p Just. Martyr. Dial. pp. 308. 315. Spencer in Notis ad Origen 
contra Cels. p. 5. Hale's Anal, of Chronol. Vol. 2. B. 2, pp. 1068, 
1069. Jortin's Remarks on Eccl. Hist. I. p. 285. 

q John, xvi. 13. 



53 

ages of Christianity, in every important orthodox princi- 
ple, is sufficient to satisfy us that the faith of Ignatius, 
Bishop of Antioch, and disciple of St. John, was the faith 
of the Christian Church, derived from the Apostles and 
Disciples of our Lord. But to return to the Epistles of 
this holy martyr : , 

"Let my life be sacrificed for the doctrine of the cross; 
which is indeed a scandal to the unbelievers, but to us is 
salvation and life eternal. " Where is the wise man ? 
Where is the disputer r" r Where is the boasting of those 
who are called wise ? For our God Jesus (JJhrist, was ac- 
cording to the dispensation of God, conceived in the womb 
of Mary, of the seed of David by the Holy Ghost," &c. — 
" Hence all the power of magic became dissolved; and 
every bond of wickedness was destroyed ; men's igno- 
lance was taken away; and the old kingdom abolished; 
God himself appearing in the form of a man, for the re- * 
newal of eternal life." S. 18, 19- s 

The same faith runs through all his Epistles, which, it 
must be recollected, were written when the crown of mar- 
tyrdom was before his eyes. Jesus Christ was his only 
hope and comfort, amidst the awful trials to which he was 
called, because Jesus Christ was his Redeemer and his 
God. The following is the Proem to his Epistle to the 
Romans : 

" Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus ; to the 
Church which has obtained Mercy from the Majesty of 
the Most High Father, and his only-begotten Son Jesus 
Christ; beloved and illuminated through the will of Him 
who willeth all things which are according to the love of 
Jesus Christ our God, which also presides in the place 
of the region of the Komans; and which I salute in the 
name of Jesus Christ, as being united both in flesh and 
spirit to all his commands, and filled with the grace of 
God ; all joy in Jesus Christ our God"* 

Again he says, " Nothing is good, that' is seen. For 
even our God Jesus Christ, now that he is in the Father, 
does so much the more appear."" 

r 1 Cor. i 20. * Wake's Apos. Fath. p. 197. Am. Ed. 

t Ibid. p. 211. * Ibid. Sec. 3. p. 212. 



59 

When speaking of the sufferings which awaited him, 
he says, " Permit me to imitate the Passion of my God." 
It was Christ who suffered, therefore the passion of Christ 
was called, by Ignatius, the Passion of God." j 

St. Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Magnesians, expressly 
states the pre-existence and eternity of Christ. — " Being 
intrusted with the Ministry of Jesus Christ ; who was with 
the Father before all ages, and appeared in the end to 
us.' ,w v And again. "There is but one God who has 
manifested himself by Jesus Christ his Son ; who is his 
Eternal Word : * x 

In his Epistle to St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, he 
says, " Consider the times ; and expect him, who is above 
all time j eternal, invisible, though for our sakes made 
visible: Impalpable and Impassible, yet for us subjected 
to sufferings; enduring all manner of ways for our salva- 
tion. r y 

The pre-existence of Christ, is the doctrine of the 
Scripture. Among many others that support the faith 
and doctrine of Ignatius, are the following passages: 

" No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that 
came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in 
heaven."* Here, Christ not only proves his pre-exist- 
ence, " he came from heaven," but likewise his Deity ; 
u ivho is in heaven" while he was speaking on earth; 
for ubiquity is an attribute belonging alone to God. 

" He that cometh from above is above all ; he that is of 
the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth; he that 
cometh from heaven is above all." a 

" I came down from heaven] not to do mine own wiil, 
but the will of him that sent me." b This verse shows in 
two ways, Christ's pre-existence. First; he came down 
from heaven ; and, secondly, no person can be sent before 
he escists. 

" Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things 
into his hands, and that he was come from God. and went 
to God.» c 



v Wake's Apos. Fath. S. 6. p. 214. Am. Ed. 

to Ibid. S. 6. p. 202. x Ibid. S. 8. p. 203. 

,¥ Ibid. S. 3. p. 220. s John, iii. 13. a John, in. 3K 

6 John, vi. 38. c John, xili. 3. 



60 

c: I came forth from the Father, and am come into 
the world j again, I leave the world, and go to the Fa- 
ther.^ 

" By him were all things created, that are in heaven, 
and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they 
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; 
all things were created by him, and for him ; and he is 
before all things, and by him all things consist." c 

The union between the Father and the Son, is thus ex- 
pressed by Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Magnesians ; 
" Farewell, and be ye strengthened in the concord of 
God ; enjoving his inseparable Spirit, which is Jesus 
Christ.*'/ 

In his Epistle to the Trallians, he says, " continue inse- 
parable from Jesus Christ our God.' 7 ^ And in the con- 
clusion of his Epistle to Polycarp, his fellow labourer, and 
fellow martyr, he says, " I wish you all happiness in our 
God, Jesus Christ, in whom continue in the unity and 
protection of God. } ' h 

That St. Ignatius worshipped Christ in unity with the 
Father, we are assured by his Epistle to the Philadelphi- 
ans. He says, "the Lord 'forgives all that repent, if 
they return to the unity of God." 1 And to the Magne- 
sians, he says, " Wherefore come ye all together as unto 
one temple of God ; as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ; 
who proceeded from one Father, and exists in one, and is 
returned to one.' ,Jc 

This holy martyr was so distinguished a disciple among 
the early Christians, that the Church at Philippi wrote to 
St. Polycarp, bishop of the Church at Smyrna, for copies 
of his epistles ; to which Polycarp replied : " The Epistles 
of Ignatius which he wrote unto us, together with what 
others of his have come to our hands, we have sent to 
you, according to your order ; which are subjoined to this 
epistle : by which we may be greatly profited ; for they 

d John, xvi. 28. c Col. i. 16, 17. Heb. i. 2, 3. 

/ Wake's Apos. Fath. S. la p. 205. Am. Ed. 
g Ibid. S. 7. p. 208. h Ibid. S. 8. p. 231. 

i Ibid. S. 8. p. 219. 

k Ibid. S. 7. p. 202. See John. x. 30. xiv. 11, 12. xvi. 28. xvil 
21,22 24. Eph. iv. 3—7. 



61 

treat of faith, and patience, and of all things that pertain 
to edification in the Lord Jesus. What you know cer- 
tainly of Ignatius, and those that are with him, signify 
- unto us." l Among the things which Polycarp declares 
are "profitable," and which " pertain to edification," in 
the writings of Ignatius, are, as we have seen, the Deity 
of Jesus Christ."* 

I Polycarp. Epis. ad Philip. S. 13, 14. Wake's Apos. Fath. p 189. 

m The smaller Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers, from which we 
tave quoted, are acknowledged to be authentic and genuine ; the 
larger epistles, are spurious. Consult, on this subject, Archbi- 
shop Wake's translation. Horsley's controversial Tracts, pp. 133 
— 139. Jortin's Remarks on Eccl. Hist I. pp. 54 — 61. Milner's 
Church Hist. I. p. 158. Doddridge's Lectures, I. p. 400. Euseb. 
Hist Eccl. lib, 3. cap. 35. gr. vel 32. Han. Lardner's Works, (a Uni- 
tarian) I. pp. 315, 316. 4to ed. Simpson's Deity of Jesus, pp. 468, 
469. and Rett's Bampton Lecture, Notes, pp. 22—25 ; where a fur- 
ther list of authorities are referred to. 



62 



CHAPTER III. 



SECOND CENTURY. 



*'>*G^^*<** 



CELSUS. 

CELSUS, an Epicurean philosopher, lived in the 
beginning of the second Century. He is well known to 
the learned, as a writer against Christianity, whom Origen 
answered in eight Books, and refuted. 

It is probable he had known some of the disciples of the 
Apostles, from whom he obtained his knowledge of the 
Christian doctrines. He mentions the incarnation of 
Christ, and that he was born of a Virgin ; a that his disci- 
ples looked upon him as a divine person, and worshipped 
him as the Son of God. & He speaks collectively of the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, c and mentions several other 
circumstances which show him to have been conversant 
with the faith and doctrine of the Christians, although he 
did not believe in them himself. 4 * 



a Apud Orig. lib. 1. pp. 22—30. 32. Ed. Cantab. 

ft Lib. vi. pp. 303. 325. 327. lib. viii. pp. 385, 388. 

e Lib. vii. p. 337. 

4 See Bryant on the Authenticity of the Scriptures, pp. 126— 129. 



m 



ST. POLYCARP, Bishop of Smyrna. 

This holy martyr was born at Smyrna, a city of great 
repute in the lesser Asia. He was a disciple of St. John, 
the Evangelist, and by him was made Bishop of Smyrna. c 
He is said to have been the Angel of the Church of Smyr- 
na, to whom, among others, St. John addressed his Reve- 
lations./ Ireneus states that, Polycarp taught, and deliv- 
ered to the Church, what he had received from the Apos- 
tles, and often spoke of his familiar intercourse with " the 
disciple whom Jesus loved :" That he took a peculiar 
pleasure in relating the sayings, and the things he had 
heard, from those who had seen the Lord.s" This holy 
martyr joins God the Father and Jesus Christ, in his 
prayer for grace and benediction upon men : " the God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he himself who 
is our everlasting High Priest, the Son of God, even Jesus 
Christ,"* When at the stake and surrounded with the 
flames which were about to consume him, he concluded 
his dying prayer, with an ascription of glory, equally to 
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. " For this, and 
for ail things else I praise thee, I bless thee, I glorify thee 
by the eternal, and heavenly high priest, Jesus Christ thy 
beloved Son; with whom to thee, and the Holy Ghost, 
be glory both now, and to ail succeeding ages. Amen." * 

St. Polycarp, who had learned Christianity from one of 
the Apostles of our Saviour, who was consecrated a Bishop 
by an Apostle, and who was burnt alive for the faith 
preached by the Apostles, solemnly declared with his last 

e Lardner's Works, 1. p. 326. 4to E,d. Cave's Lives, II. p. 239, 
Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 4. cap. 14. 

/Rev.ii. 8— 12. 

g Iren. adv. Haeres lib. iii. c. 3. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 5. c. 20. 
Shepherd on Common Prayer, II. p. 193. 

h Polycarp. Epis ad Philip. S. 12. Wake's Apos. Fath. p. 189, 
Am. Ed. Bingham's Works, I. lib. 13. c. 2. s. 2. 

i Wake's Apos. Fath. p. 246. Am. Ed. Shepherd on Common 
Prayer, II. 193. 



64 

breath at the stake, the eternity of Christ, and gave 
equal honor and glory to the three Persons in the ever- 
blessed Trinity. So that we find, the doxology to the 
Father, Son and Spirit as the one God in whose name we 
are baptised, by command of Christ himself,* was used by 
the primitive Christians ; and it has ever since been contin- 
ued in the Church of Christ, to the present day, and will 
continue in his Church triumphant when time shall be 
no longer. 

After the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, the Church at 
Smyrna, addressed a letter to the " Church at Philomi- 
lium, and unto all the congregations of the holy Catholic 
Church, throughout Pontus," giving the particulars of his 
death ; from which it appears that, the Christians were 
desirous of obtaining his body, after his martyrdom, that 
they might give it Christian burial. " But many pricked 
forwards Nicetes, the father of Herod, and his brother 
Dalces, to move the Pro-consul not to deliver to the Chris- 
tians, his body, lest that (saith he) they, leaving Christy 
fall a worshipping of him. This they said, when the Jews 
edged and urged them forwards, which continually watch- 
ed us lest that we snatched him out of the fire ; being 
ignorant of this, that we can never forsake Christ, which 
died for the salvation of the whole world, and that we can 
luorship none other." l 

From this statement it is evident that Christ was wor- 
shipped by the Church at Smyrna, over which the holy 
martyr St. Polycarp presided ; and as the Christians can 
worship 7io other being than God, Christ, therefore, was 
worshipped as God. To worship any being less than 
God, is Idolatry. 

From the preceding articles we may see the falsity of 
Dr. Priestley's assertion that, " we find nothing like 
divinity ascribed to Jesus Christ before Justin Martyr," 
and " that all the early fathers speak of Christ as not hav- 
ing existed always."" 1 

/; Matt, xxviii. 19. I Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 4 cap. 15. 

m Hist, of Corrup. I. pp. 32. 42. See Lardner's Works, 1. p. 325. 
MUner's Church Hist. I, 206. Cave's Lives, II. p. 237. 



65 



JUSTIN MARTYR. 



This holy man was born A. D. 103, and from a Plato- 
nic Philosopher, became a zealous and orthodox defender 
of the Christian faith. He was a proselyte of Samaria in 
Palestine, but of Grecian parentage. He wrote about 
forty years after the death of St. John, the Evangelist, 
and was beheaded aiRome, A. D. 167. 

In his first Apology for the Christians, he says, "but 
we are not Atheists in respect to the most true God, the 
Father of all righteousness and k wisdom, and of every 
other virtue ; without the least mixture of depravity. For 
we reverence and worship both Him and his Son, who 
proceeded from Him, and who afforded us this knowledge 
of God and Christ, and afforded the same to the whole 
host of his excellent messengers^ the good angels, who 
minister to Him, and are made like Him. We likewise 
reverence and adore that Spirit, from which proceedeth all 
prophecy; affording towards it a true and rational wor- 
ship," 8zc. n 

" I can give you another proof from the Scriptures (con- 
cerning Christ) that God in the beginning, before all the 
worlds, produced from himself a certain intellectual power; 
which is by the Holy Spirit (in the Scriptures) mentioned 
as the Son of Qod, as Wisdom, as an Angel, as God; 
and sometimes as the Lord, and the Logos, or Word." 

" We know Jesus Christ to be the Son of the true 
God, and therefore hold him to be the second in order, 
and the prophetic Spirit the third, and that we have 

n Apologia prima p. 56. C. Bingham's Antiq.B. 13. ch.2. S. 2. p. 
563, fol. ed. Bull's Works, II. p. 211. 

o Dial cum Try ph. p. 159. E. Wateriand on Divinity of Christ, p. 
36. Simpson on Deity of Jesus, pp. 134. 144. 
F2 



66 

good reason for worshipping in this subordination, I shall 
show hereafter."^ 

" The leaders of these sects have each, in their different 
ways, taught their followers to blaspheme the Maker of 
the Universe, and him, who by his prophets he had fore- 
told should come, Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob : with whom we hold no communion, knowing them 
to be dishonourers of God and religion, and despisers of 
the laws : who, acknowledging Jesus in name only, refuse 
to pay him divine worship"* The Scriptures expressly 
declare, that Christ was to suffer, and is to be worshipped, 
and is God."*" 

" We deliver the truth ; and nothing but the truth ; and 
that Jesus Christ alone is properly the Son of God, as be- 
ing the Logos, and First-begotten, and Power of God, 
and by his counsel was made man." * 

" Lest any one should object, that we can show no 
reason why our Christ should not be looked upon as 
a mere man, I shall enter upon the proof of his Divi- 
nity." * 

" They who affirm the Son to be the Father, are 
guilty of not knowing the Father, and likewise of being 
ignorant that the Father of the universe has a Son, 
who, being the Logos, and First-begotten of God, is also 
God." u 

'• Next after the unbegotten and ineffable God, we 
adore and love him who is the Word of God; be- 
cause that for our sakes he became man, and was made 
partaker of our sufferings, that he might heal us." 1 ' 

" I can show, that he (Christ) even pre-existed the Son 
of the Creator of all things, being God, and was born 
man through a Virgin." 10 

" That ye might also know God, who came forth from 
above, and became man among men, and who is again 



p Apol. prima. S. 16* 

q Dial, cum Trypb. ed Thirlb. p. 207. r Ibid, 

s Apologia prima, S. 31. t Ibid. S. 37. 

-*4 Ibid. S. 83 v Apol. 1. prope finem, 

<a DM. cum Tryph. p. 267. 



67 

to return, when they who pierced him shall see and 
bewail him." x 

When Justin was brought before Rusticus, the Prefect, 
for examination, he was asked, what the Christian doctrine 
was ? To which he replied, " it is this, we believe the only 
one God to be the Creator of all tilings visible and invisi- 
ble, and confess our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Son of 
God, foretold by the prophets of old, and who shall here- 
after appear the Judge of mankind, a Saviour, teacher, 
and master to all those who are duly instructed by him. 
As for myself, I am too mean to be able to say any thing 
becoming his infinite Deity; this was the business of 
the Prophets, who many years ago had foretold the com- 
ing of the Son of God into the world."!/ 



THEOPHILUS, Bishop of Antioch. 



Theophilus, was the 6th Bishop of Antioch after the 
Apostles/ \. D. 168. He was originally a heathen, and 
well instructed in Greek Literature. He was the author 
of several works of reputation ; but none are now extant 
but his three books in defence of Christianity, addressed to 
Autolycus. Although tinctured with the Platonic philoso- 
phy, yet he gives us the sense of the Church in his day, on 
the most essential article of the Christian faith. •< These 
three days (of the creation) are Types of the Trias, [Tri- 
nity] the Father, the Son, and his Spirit of Wisdom f 9 
and says, that the Word, proceeded from God before 
the Worlds." 

x P. 288. Apud Simpson's Deity of Jesus, pp. 488, 489. 

y See Milner's Church Hist. I. p. 186. Cave's Lives, II. p. 277. 
Lardner's Works, I. p, 341. Waterland on the Trinity, p. 281. Jor- 
tin's Remarks on Eccl. Hist. I. p. 334. 

z The Apostles Peter and Paul 5 Euodius, Ignatius, Heros, Corne- 
lius, Eros, Theophilus. 

a Ad Autolyc. lib. ii. pp. 355. 360. B. 



X 68 * 

Theophilus was very severe against all who infected the 
purity of the Apostolic doctrine, and, by conversation and 
writing, refuted their errors. He wrote against Mar- 
cion, an impugner of our Lord's proper divinity, and 
was very celebrated in these controversies. 6 , 



MELITO, Bishop of Sardis. 



Melito, was Bishop of Sardis, in Lydia. He was an 
eloquent and learned man, and addressed an Apology for 
the Christians to Marcus Antoninus, A. D. 170. He was 
the author of several works, and was the first Christian 
who gave a catalogue of the books of the Old Testament, 
except the book of Esther. 

" There is no necessity," says this pious man, " to prove 
the real and true human nature of Christ's soul and body, 
from his actions after his baptism. For what was done 
after his baptism, especially his miracles, did manifest and 
confirm to the world, the deity of Christ veiled in the flesh. 
The same person being perfect God, and perfect man, 
confirmed to us both these natures ; his Godhead, by the 
miracles he wrought in the three years after his baptism, 
and his manhood in the thirty years before it, in which the 
imperfection of the flesh concealed the tokens of his God- 
head, although he teas true God eternally."* 



b Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 4. cap. 24 gr. vel 23 Han. Waterland on 
Divinity of Christ, pp. 248. 25T. Bing. Antiq. B. 9. ch. 2. S. 2. p. 564. 
fol. Ed. Lardner's Works, I. p. 383. Milner's Church Hist. I. p. 24a 
Simpson's Plea for Deity of Jesus, pp. 137. 493. 

c Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 4. cap. 26 gr. vel 25 Han. 

d AnasMii Hodegus ; c. 12. Cave's Hist. Lit. II. Horse Solit. I. 
p. 67 Simpson's Deity of Jesus, p. 492. Lardner's Works, I. p. 358. 
Milner's Church Hist. p. 244. 



69 



TATIAN. 



Tatian flourished, A. D. 172. He was a Platonic phi- 
losopher, and a man of eminent learning. He became a 
disciple of Justin's and a convert to Christianity. He 
speaks of the Word as the first instance of the productive 
power of God ; that it was effected by a division, but with- 
out separation. The Word, before the formation of man, 
created the Angels in heaven. The Word was the Image 
of God. e 



ATHENAGGRAS. 



From a learned Athenian philosopher, Athenagoras^ 
became an eminent Christian. He addressed an Apology 
for the Christians to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Anto- 
ninus, and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, about A. D. 178. 
Subsequently, he wrote a discourse " Gf the Resurrection 
of the Dead." 

It is worthy of remark, that Athenagoras, while groping 
in heathen darkness, determined to write against the 
Christian religion. While collecting materials for this 
purpose, and examining the facts and evidences upon which 

e Orat. con. Graecos, pp 247. 249. Bryant's Philo Judeus, p. 67, 
Lardners Works, I. p. 353. Simpson's Deity of Jesus, p. 491. 



70 

our faith is built, he became so persuaded of its truth, 
that he embraced Christianity, and wrote in its defence.-^ 
f< It is abundantly plain," says this learned man, M that 
we do not deny the existence of a God : we who maintain, 
there is one uncreated, eternal, invisible God, not subject 
to passions, not to be circumscribed in place, nor capable 
of divisibility, only to be comprehended in the mind and 
spirit, and endowed with incomprehensible glory, beauty, 
power, and majesty; by whom all things were made 
through his Word, were disposed in this beautiful harmony , 
and are continually sustained. We believe too in the Son 
of God. Let not this be a subject of ridicule, because we 
mention a Son of God: we have not the same notions of 
God, the Father, or the Son, as your absurd Poets and 
Mythologists have, who make their gods as foolish and as 
wicked as themselves. The Son of God is the Word of 
the Father, in power and energy: by him and through 
him were all things created : for the Father and the Son 
are One : the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the 
Father, by the unity and power of the Holy Ghost: For 
the Son of God is the wisdom and Word of God. If you 
desire a farther explanation of the meaning of Son in this 
point, I will endeavour to give you a brief one : He is the 
First-Born of the Father, but not as ever beginning to ex- 
ist; for from the beginning, God, being an eternal mind, 
must have had, from all eternity, the Word in himself; 
and as the wisdom and power, he exerted himself in all 
things : all matter was subject to him by formation, and 
the elements blended together, and mixed by his operation 
The prophetical Spirit too confirms this : The Lord posses 
sed me in the beginning of his way, before his icorks of old. 
And as for the Holy Spirit, who speaks to us in the Pro 
phets, we assert him to proceed from God, as a beam pro- 
ceeds from the Sun, and is reflected back again. Who 
then can but wonder, to hear us charged of Atheism, who 

/ This was the case in later times with Lord Lyttleton, and Gilbert 
West, who had agreed, to write in favour of infidelity. But examin- 
ing the sacred writings, they became satisfied of the truth of Christi- 
anity, and embraced the doctrines of the Cross. The former wrote an 
admirable work on the conversion of St. Paul, and the latter, on the 
resurrection of. Christ 



71 

declare, there is God the Father, and God the Son, and 
God the Holy Ghost ; who acknowledge their power in 
unity and distinction. "ff 

" We acknowledge God, and the Son his Logos, with 
the Holy Ghost, one as to their power, even the Father, 
the Son, and the Spirit ; the Son to be the Mind, the 
Word, the Wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit to pro- 
ceed as light doth from fire." A 

Athenagoras asserts that " by him, [Christ] and through 
him were all things created." And so say the Scriptures.* 
All things, both visible and invisible were created and 
made by Christ ; even the Angels and Archangels, Cheru- 
bim and Seraphim, thrones, dominions, principalities and 
powers. But the Apostle says, " he who built all things 
is God."* Christ, therefore, who made all things, is God; 
and as the Creator of all things is called Jehovah, in 
various parts of the Scripture, l therefore Christ is Je- 
hovah. 

As Christ was unquestionably the Creator of all things 
in heaven and in earth, both visible and invisible, f and 
without him was not anything made that was made," m 
he either must have created himself, if he be a creature, 
which would be the utmost folly to believe, or, he is not a 
creature ; and if not a creature, he is uncreated, and if un- 
created, He must be God ; for nothing is uncreated but God, 

" Creation, in any sense of the word, i. e. causing some- 
thing to exist which had no existence before, can belong 
only to God ; because it is an effect of an unlimited power: 
to say thit such power could be delegated to a person, is 
to say, that the person to whom it is delegated, becomes, 
for the time, the omnipotent God ; and that God, who has 
thus clothed a creature with his omnipotence, ceases to be 

g Legat pro Christ, p. 10. 

h Legat. pro Christ, p. 12. Simpson s Deity of Jesus, pp. 493, 494. 
Waterland on the Trinity, p. 342. Lardner's Works, I. p. 377. Mil- 
ner's Church Hist. I. 246. 

i John, i. 3. 10, 1 Cor. viii. 6. Eph. iii. 9. Col. i. 16- Heb. i. 2, 
3.10, 11. iii. 3,4. 

k Heb. iii. 4. 

I Esod. xs. 11. xsxi. 37. 2 Kings, six. 15. Isa. sftv.24. Jer 

m John, i.8. 



12 

Omnipotent himself; for there cannot be two omnipotents, 
nor can the Supreme Being delegate his omnipotence to 
another, and have it at the same time. I confess, then, 
that it is to me an unanswerable argument for the Divinity 
of our blessed Lord."" 



LUCIAN. 



Lucian, the heathen, was born at Samosata, and 
brought up as a sculptor. He subsequently devoted him- 
self to Letters and became a learned and eloquent writer. 
He obtained the appellation of Atheist, from endeavouring 
to turn every religion into ridicule and contempt. He 
died, A. D 180, aged 90. 

In one of his dialogues, he takes notice of the Christian 
religion. Introducing a Christian instructing a catechu- 
men, he makes the latter ask this question : " By whom 
shall I swear?" He who personates the Christian, ans- 
wers : " By the God who teigns on high, the great, immor- 
tal, heavenly God, and tht Son of th» j Father, and the 
Spirit proceeding from the Father. One in Three, and 
Three in One Cake these for your Jupiter, esteem this 
to be your God."* 

Socinus, th.» founder of Sot inianism, was staggered with 
this testimony of an enemy to Christianity. He says that, 
u he never met with any thing which seems more to favour 
the notion that a T< mity of Ptrsons in the Godhead was 
in that age the object of belief and worship, than this pas- 
sage from the Dialogue styled Philopatris."^ 
■ '' ■ " 

n Clarke's Bible, Notes on Matt. xv. 30 Col. i. 16, 17. Water- 
land on Divinity of Christ, p. 189. 248 257. Bryant's Philo Judeus, 
p. 64. Bingham's Antiq. B. 9. ch. 2. S. 2. 

o See his Philopat. prope finera. 

p Socin. adv. Eutrop. c. 15. p. 689, apud Simpson's Deity of JefUfc 
V W7. 



73 

Lucian, in another place, says, " These wretches (the 
Christians) believe themselves immortal ; that they shall 
live for ever ; and therefore despise death, and yield them- 
selves unto it. Their Lawgiver persuaded them that they 
are all brethren ; and therefore when they depart from us, 
and deny the deities of the Greeks, and worship their cru- 
cified Teacher, and frame their lives conformably to his 
laws, they contemn riches, have all things in common, 
keep their faith. To this day they worship that great 
Man crucified in Palestine."* 

The testimony of Lucian clearly proves, that, in his day, 
Christ was worshipped, and the doctrine of the Trinity 
professed by Christians. 



TERTULLIAN. 



Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus, was bon? at 
Carthage, a city of Africa, a few miles from the modern 
Tunis. He was converted from Paganism to Christianity, 
about A. D. 185, and became a Presbyter of his native 
city. He lived to a very advanced age, and belonged 
to the second and third centuries. 

The following Creed, which is supposed to have been 
formed about the beginning of the second century, is 
found in his works : 

" We believe in one God, but under this dispensation 
(which we call oikonomian) that to the one God there is a 
Son, his Word, who proceeded from him, by whom all 
things were made, and without whom nothing was made. 
He, sent by the Father to a Virgin, and born of her, be- 
came Man and God, the Son of Man, and the Son of God. 
and was named Jesus Christ. We believe that he suffered^ 



q Luc. in Proteo. p. 764. See Bingham's Antiq. B. 9, ch. 2. S. 2. 
Simpson's Deity of Jesus, p. 447 
G 



/4 

was dead and buried, according to the Scriptures, and be- 
ing raised by the Father, and taken up into heaven, that 
he sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come 
again to judge both the quick and the dead. Who rent, 
according to his promise, from the Father, the Holy Ghost, 
the Comforter, the Sanctifier of the faith of those who 
believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." r 

" It was the Son who judged men from the beginning, 
destroying that lofty tower, and confounding their lan- 
guages ; punishing the whole world with a flood of waters; 
and raining fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomor- 
rah, the Lord pouring it down from the Lord : for he 
always descended to hold converse with men, from Adam 
even to the Patriarchs and Prophets, in visions, in dreams, 
in mirrors, in dark sentences, always preparing his way 
from the beginning. Neither was it possible, that the 
God who conversed with men upon earth, could be 
any other than that Word, which was to be made 
flesh." s 

These quotations show Tertullian's faith in Christ's pre- 
existence. On the subject of the miraculous conception, 
he says: " He is a ray of God, which, darting down upon 
a certain Virgin, and being in her womb fashioned into 
flesh, was born a Man mixed with God." * 

Speaking of the Worship of Christ, he says: i( The 
kingdom and the name of Christ, are extended without 
limits ; he is every where believed in ; he is worshipped 
in all nations ; he reigns everv where ; he is every where 
adored; he is in all places equally offered to the accept- 
ance of all; he is to all a King; to all a Judge; to all a 
God, and Lord."" 

Again. u Christ is in his own right God Almighty, as 
he is the Word of Almighty God." v — " We Christians 
do affirm a Spirit to be the proper substance of the Logos, 
by whom all things were made, in which he subsisted be- 

r Tertul. adv. Prax. cap. 2. pp. 5, 6. Gregory's Church Hist. I. pp. 
215,116. 
s Adv. Prax. cap. 16. 
i Apol. adv Gentes, cap. 21. 
u Adv. Judaeos, cap. 7. 
v Contra. Prax. cap. 17 



7£> 

fore he was manifested, and was the Wisdom that assisted 
at the Creation, and the Power that presided over the 
whole work." — Christ u is for this reason called the Son 
of God, and the God, from his unity of substance with 
God the Father, for God is a Spirit."— 44 Thus it is that 
the Logos which came forth from God, is both God, and 
the Son of God, and those two are one." — " This is the 
Christ, the God of Christians"™ 

The writings of this father are full of the evidence of 
his belief in the essential deity of Christ, and in the doc- 
trine of the ever-blessed Trinity. 1 



THEODOTUS. 



This man was a citizen of Byzantium, and by trade a 
currier. He possessed a good understanding and some 
learning, and flourished about A. D. 195. 

u Having denied his Saviour in time of persecution, and 
being afterwards upbraided for it, as one who had denied 
his God, to extenuate the offence, he pretended that he 
had not denied God, but man, for that Christ was no 
more." y Theodotus was excommunicated for his heresy, 
by Victor, Bishop of Rome, and his opinions refuted bv 
Caius, Hippolitus and others. 

Caius was a presbyter of Rome, and flourished about A. 
D. 214. Writing against the impugners of our Lord's 
divinity, he says : " who knoweth not, that the works of 
Ireneus, Melito, and all other Christians, do confess Christ 

w Apol. cap 21 

x See Bryant's Philo Judaeus, p. 71. Bingham's Antiq. B. x. ch. 4. 
S. 3. B. xiii. ch 2. S. 2. pp. 444. 565. fol. ed. Fiddes' Theolog. Spec. 
I. B. 4. ch. 2. p. 389. Simpson's Deity of Jesus, pp. 135. 154- 169. 
235 299. Waterl and on Divinity of Christ, p. 24. Ibid, on Trinity, 
pp. 306. 344. Lardner's Works, I. p. 416. Milner's Church Hist. I. 
p. 267. Jorlin's Remarks on Eccl. Hist. I. p. 373, 

y Waterland on the Trinity, pp. 312. 320. 



76 

to be both God and Man ? To be short, how many 
Psalms and Hymns, and Canticles, were written/rom the 
beginning by the faithful Christians, which do celebrate 
and praise Christ, the Word of God, for no other than 
God indeed.'' z 



IRENEUS. 



This holy martyr was a Greek by birth, and the disci- 
ple of Polycarp, the disciple of St. John the Evangelist. 
He was a Christian of great eminence, and was made 
Bishop of Lyons, in France, upon the martyrdom of 
Pothinus. The miraculous gifts of the Spirit continued 
with the Church in the days of Ireneus. He was behead- 
ed A. D. 202. 

In the first of his five books against heresies," he 
gives a summary of the faith of the Church in his day, in 
the form of a Creed ; in which he says, — " And in Jesus 
Christ the Son of God, who for our salvation was incar* 
nate : And in the Holy Ghost, who preached by the pro- 
phets the dispensations of God, and the Advents of our 
blessed Lord Jesus Christ ; his being born of a Virgin, his 
sufferings, resurrection from the dead, ascension into hea- 
ven in the flesh 5 and his coming again from heaven in the 
glory of the Father, to gather in one all things, 6 and to 
raise from the dead the flesh of all mankind, that to 
Christ Jesus our Lord God, Saviour and King," &c. 

Ireneus declares " this faith to have been dispersed 
throughout the world, and that the Church retains it with 
one consent, as if it were animated with one soul, and 
spoke with one mouth. This is the belief of the Churches / 

z Euseb. Hist. Eccl lib. 5. cap. 28. gr. vel 25 Han. See Lardner's 
Works, I. 481. 

a Cap. x. p. 48. Ben. ed. b Eph. i. 10. 



77 

of the East, of Egypt, of Africa, of Spain, of Germany, 
and of the Celts, as well as of the Mediterranean Churches 
of Palestine.'* 

Again, he says, " Man being created and fashioned, is 
made after the Image and likeness of the uncreated God : 
The Father designing and giving out orders ; the Son ex- 
ecuting and creating ; the Holy Ghost supplying nutri- 
ment and increase.'** This sufficiently shows the mar- 
tyr's sense of the distinct personality, but unity of Es- 
sence. 

And again : " He who was adored by the Prophets as 
the living God ; He is the God of the living 5 and his 
Word who spake to Moses," &c. — " One and the same 
God the Father, and his Word, always assisting to man- 
kind," &c. — " He that made all things, is, with his Word, 
justly called the only God and Lord." e 

Ireneus, speaking of the Miracles which were wrought 
by the Church in his time, particularly in casting out evil 
spirits, says, that it was not done by the invocation of an- 
gels, nor by enchantments, &c. but by addressing her 
prayers to God, and by invocating the name of Christ./ 
The form of prayer is given/ which the Deacons used 
upon these occasions, and likewise the following sublime 
episcopal benediction, which was immediately addressed 
to Christ as God : 

" O ! thou only-begotten God, the Son of the Great 
Father 5 Thou that bindest the strong one and spoilest his 
goods; that givest power unto us to tread on Serpents and 
Scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy ; that hast 
delivered up the murdering Serpent unto us a Prisoner, as 
a Sparrow unto children ; Thou, before whom all things 
shake and tremble at the presence of thy power ; that mak- 
est Satan to fa 1 1 from heaven to the earth as lightning, not 
by a local fall, but by a fall from honor to disgrace, be- 
cause of his voluntary malice ; Thou whose looks dry up 

c Iren. adv. Heras. p. 48 

d Waterland on Divinity of Christ, p. 438. Bryant's Philo Judae- 
us, p. 68. 

e Iren. «pud Fiddes' Theolog. Spec. I. pp 387. 402. 
/ Lib. 2. cap. 57. Bingham's Antiq. B. 9. ch. 2. p. 564. 
g Ibid. B. 14. ch. 5. S. 7. pp. 720, 721. 
G2 



73 

the deep, and threatenings make the mountains melt, 
whose truth endures for ever; whom Infants praise, and 
Sucklings bless, and Angels celebrate and adore; that 
lookest upon the earth, and makestit tremble ; that touchi- 
est the mountains, and they smoke ; that rebukest the sea, 
and driest it up, and turnest the rivers into a Wilderness ; 
that makest the clouds to be the dust of thy feet, and 
walkest upon the sea as upon a Pavement : — Rebuke 
the evil spirits, and deliver the works of thy hands from 
the vexation of the adverse spirit, world without end. 
Amen." 

The following extracts will show this father's belief in 
the pre-existence and Deity of our blessed Redeemer : 

" We show that the Word, existent in the beginning 
with God, united himself to the work of his own hands, 
when he became a man capable of suffering."* 

" The Scripture is full of the Son of God's appearing, 
sometimes to talk and eat with Abraham ; at other times 
to instruct Noah about the measures of the Ark ; at ano- 
ther time to seek Adam; at another time to bring down 
judgement upon Sodom ; then again to direct Jacob 
in the way, and again to converse with Moses out of the 
bush."* 

Having cited Exod. iii. 6. I am the God of Abraham, 
and the God of Isaac, &c. which Ireneus understood to 
have been spoken by Christ, he says, " From hence, 
Christ, made it plain, that he who spake to Moses out of 
♦he Bush, and manifested himself to be the God of the Fa- 
thers, is the God of the Living" And after stating in 
several places in the same chapter, that the Father and 
Son are One and the same God, he concludes, " Christ 
himself, therefore, with the Father, is the God of the Liv- 
ing, who spake to Moses, and was manifested to the Fa- 
thers."* 

" The Father of our Lord Jesus, manifests and reveals 
himself to all, whom he is at all revealed to, by his Word, 
who is his son. For they know the Father, to whomso- 
ever the Son will reveal him. Now the Son, co-existing 

h Lib. 3. cap. 20. i Lib. 4. cap. 23. 

k Lib 4. cap. 5. Waterland on Divinity of Christ, p. 34. 



79 

always with the Father, reveals the Father of old, even 
always from the beginning, to angels and archangels, and 
powers and dominions, and to men, whom God thinks fit 
to reveal himself to." l 

" Every knee should bow to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and 
Saviour, and King, according to the good pleasure of the 
invisible Father." m 

Ireneus, speaking of the generation of Jesus Christ, 
says, that he is called God with us, n lest by any means we 
should conceive that he was only a man. For the Word 
was made flesh, not by the will of man, hut by the will of 
God. Nor should we indeed surmise Jesus to have been 
another, but know him to be one and the same God. This 
very thing Paul has interpreted. And again writing to 
the Romans concerning Israel, he saith, Whose are the 
fathers, and of whom Christ came^ according to theflesh % 
who is God over all, blessed for ever J? 

" Being invisible, he took manhood upon himself and 
became visible; being incomprehensible, he became com- 
prehensible ; and being impassible, he became passible ; « 
and being the Word, he became man." r 

The (( Angels did not make us, nor did they form us ; 
neither was it in their power to make the image of God : 
none but the Logos could do this; no powers distinct from 
the Father of all things : for God did not want their assist- 
ance in making the things which he had ordained. For 
his Word and his Wisdom, the Son and the Holy Ghost, 
are always with him; by whom and with whom, he made 
all things freely, and of his own accord ; to whom also he 
spake in these words, Let us make man in our image and 
likeness." s 

I Lib. 2. cap. 55. 

m Lib. 1. cap. 2. Isa.xlii 8. xlv. 23. John, v. 23. Phil. ii. 10, 11. 

n Isa. vii. 14. Matt. i. 23. o John, i. 13, 14. 

p Rom. ix. 5. Adv. Heeres. lib. 3. cap. 18. 

q St. Ignatius has the same expression ; see page 59. 

r Adv. Ha?res. lib 3 cap. 18. 

s Lib. 4. cap. 37. Gen. i. 26. The creation of man, being an act 
of the Godhead, this address could be made to none who did not par- 
take of the Godhead; but the Godhead is one. The Son, being of 
the same essence with the Father 2 partakes in the unity of the God- 
head, 



80 

In various parts of his works, Ireneus mentions the 
three persons of the Trinity, and almost as often as he 
speaks of the Word, he establishes either his divinity, 
eternity, or equality with the Father. ' 



CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS. 



Titus Flavius Clemens, usually called St. Clement of 
Alexandria, was a Presbyter of the Church in that city. 
He was a man of great learning and eminent talents; an 
eloquent writer and an able defender of the Christian 
faith." He was the friend of Ireneus ; the scholar of the 
celebrated Pantaenus, whom he succeeded as President in 
the catechetical school of Alexandria ; and the tutor of 
the famous Origen. He wrote about A. D. 195, and died 
early in the third century. 

Citing Exod. xx. 2. I am the Lord thy God, &c. and 
understanding it of Christ, St. Clement says, " that Christ 
said this of himself, in his own person." v 

This holy father " protests against the worship of crea- 
tures ; and allows no worship but to the Maker and Gover- 
nor of all things. But then no man is more express than 
he for the worshipping of God the Son. The reason is 
plain j the Son is Maker and Governor of the World, w 
and even Pantokrator, according to this excellent wri- 
ter.'' * 

t See Dupin'sBib. Article Iren. Apud Shepherd on the Common 
Prayer, T. p. 224. King's Hist, of the Apos. Creed, p. 147 Jortin's 
Remarks on Eccl. Hist I. 372. Lardner's Works, I. p. 363. Milners 
Church Hist. I. p. 260. Cave's Lives, II p. 311. Waterland on the 
Trinity, pp. 297. 300—306 Simpson's Deity of Jesus, pp. 87. 135. 
177 235. 242. 250. 357. 

u Cave's Lives, II. p. 361. 

v Paedag. lib 1. cap. 7. p. 131. Ed. Ox. 

w John, i. 3. 10. 1 Cor. viii. 6. Eph. iii. 9. Col. i. 16. Heb. L 
2. 10, 11. iii. 3, 4. 

x See Waterland on Divinity of Christ, pp. 34. 257, 253. 



81 

In his exhortation to the Gentiles,*' Clemens styles 
Christ the Living God, who was then worshipped and 
adored. " Believe," says he, " O man, in him who suffer- 
ed death, and yet is adored as the hiving God." 

In the end of his Paedagogue, he himself addresses his 
prayers to the Son jointly with the Father, in these 
words : — " Be merciful to thy children, O Master, O Fa- 
ther, thou Ruler of Israel, O Son, and Father, who are 
both one, our Lord." z 

Speaking of some words of Plato, he says, I understand 
them to be spoken of the Holy Trinity ; for the third in- 
deed is the Holy Ghost, the second is the Son, by whom 
all things were made, according to the will of the Fa- 
ther. ° 

" O children, our Paedagogue is like to God his Father, 
whose Son he is, without sin — he is God in the form of 
man, immaculate, who executes the will of his Father, 
the Word, God, who is in the Father, who is on the 
right hand of the Father, and with this form he is 
God » & 

At the conclusion of one of his books he has this doxo- 
logy to the ever-blessed Trinity : " Let us give thanks to 
the only Father and Son, to the Son and the Father, to 
the Son our teacher and master, with the Holy Spirit ; one 
in all respects ; in whom are all things; by whom all 
things are one; by whom is eternal existence; whose 
members we are ; whose is the glory and the ages ; who is 
the perfect good, the perfect beauty, all-wise and all-just « 
to whom be glory both now and for ever. Amen. ,?c 

St. Clement, in other parts of his works, states that, 
Christ appeared to the Patriarchs, to Moses and the Pro- 
phets ; and led the children of Israel through the wilder- 
ness. d In corroboration of this opinion of the holy father, 
we have the decision of infallible expositors. The Psalm- 
ist says e that the Israelites in the wilderness tempted and 
provoked the most High God ; but St. Paul/ speaking of 

y Protreptic, p. 84. s Psedag. lib. 3. cap 12. p. 311. 

a Strom, lib. 5. b Pffidag. lib. 1. cap. 2. 

c Paedag. lib. 7. cap. 7. 

d See Simpson's Deity of Jesus, pp. 135. 145. 250. 502, 503. 

e Ps..lxxviiL 56. / 1 Cor. x, 9. 



32 

the same rebellious conduct of the Israelites, says, neither 
let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted. Two 
important couclusions are to be drawn from comparing 
these texts : Christ was tempted by the Israelites in the 
wilderness, therefore he existed before his incarnation, and 
is not a mere man ; and as David calls him whom they 
tempted, the Most High God, Christ, therefore, is the 
Most High God. St. Stephen, likewise, bears testimony 
to the same fact/ a few minutes before his martyrdom. 
This is he, that was in the Church in the Wilderness; who 
was frequently called, the great Angel of the Covenant. h 

g Acts, vii. 38. 

h See Bingham's Antiq. B. 9. ch. 2. S. 2. Lardner's Works, I. p., 
392. Cave's Lives, II. p. 355. Milner's Church Hist. I p. 278. 



83 



CHAPTER IV. 



THIRD CENTURY. 



MINUTIUS FELIX. 



Marcus Minutius Felix, was born in Africa, and was an 
eminent Lawyer of Rome. He flourished, A. D. 210. He 
was a man of great ingenuity, learning, and eloquence 5 
and, after embracing the Christian religion, was celebra- 
ted for his excellent defence of his faith, in the form of a 
dialogue between Coecilius Natalis, a heathen, and Octa- 
vius Januarius, a Christian. 

In reply to the charge that the Christians worshipped a 
crucified Man, he said, they were mistaken; for he whom 
they worshipped, was God, and not a mere mortal man. 
" He surely is miserable in good earnest, whose hopes all 
hang upon a mortal ; for his whole comfort expires with 
the man.' 7 a This learned man, then, believed in the pro- 
mises of the Gospel, because he believed him to be God 
who had promised. 

a Mimic. Dial. p. 88. Bingham's Antiq. B. 9. cb. 2. p. 564. fol. eel. 
Simpson's Deity of Jesus, pp. 227, 505. Lardner's Works, X. 477 
Milner's Church Hist. 1. 301. 



84 



ST. HIPPOLYTUS. 



Hippolytus Portuensis, was Bishop of Portus, in Ara- 
bia, A. D. 220, and died a martyr for the faith. He was 
a disciple of St. Treneus, and a man of great learning. 
He maintains that "the Son was always God by nature, 
and, that as before, so after his incarnation, his divine 
nature was a substantial substance, infinite, incompre- 
hensible, and endowed with all the Divine Perfections." 6 

To him [Christ] be glory and strength, together with 
the Father and the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Church, now 
and for evermore, Amen." c 

u The Father is one, but there are two persons, because 
there is a Sou, and the third is the Holy Ghost. We can- 
not think otherwise of God as one, unless we believe 
really in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Who- 
ever should leave out any one of the three, would not 
glorify God perfectly, for the Father is glorified by this 
Trinity, seeing the Father willed, the Son effected, the 
Spirit manifested. d 

" We can have no right conception of the one God, but 
by believing in a real Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 6 

" He, [Christ] having condescended to put on the hum- 
ble garb of humanity, said, Father, glorify me with the 
ghry zohich I had with thee before the world was : For he 
was always invested with divine glory, having been co-ex- 
istent with his Father before all ages, and before all time, 
and the foundation of the world."/ 

b HippoL contra Ber. <k Hel. c Apud Anast. Bib. 

d Hippo!, con. Noet. p. 20. Ed. Fabricii. 

e Contr. Noetum, passim. 

/ Stackhpuse's Body of Divinity, Part I. ch. 6. pp. 126. 138. Water- 
land on iVnity, p. 317. Lardner's Works, I. p. 495. Simpson? 
Deity of Jesus, p. 518. Euseb. Hist. Ecel. lib. 6. cap. 21, 22. gr. v*t 
20, 21. Han. 



85 

These quotations leave no room to doubt the faith of 
this holy martyr. Christ has existed from all eternity 
with the Father; with whom, and the Holy Ghost, he 
subsists in the unity of the Godhead, one Jehovah, 



ORIGEN. 



Origen, one of the most learned fathers of the Church, 
was born at Alexandria, and was the diseiple of Clemens 
Alexandrinus. He was the first writer who paid any atten- 
tion to the criticism of the Bible. He died at Tyre, 
March 1, A. D. 253, aged 69- 

The writings of this father are full of the evidence of 
his faith in the essential divinity of the Redeemer. 

" The Word of God, clothed in the flesh of Mary, came 
forth into the world, and, indeed, it was one thing which 
in him was seen, another was understood. For the appear- 
ance of flesh in him was obvious to all ; but to few and 
chosen persons was the knowledge of his Godhead im- 
parted." ff 

" Christ is the Word of God ; but the Word was made 
flesh. In Christ, therefore, there rs one substance from 
above, another assumed of the human nature and the vir- 
gin's womb." h 

Origen, speaking upon 1 Cor. i. 2, With all that call on 
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, declares him to be 
God, whose name was called upon. And if to call upon 
the name of the Lord, and to adore God, be one and the 
self-same thing; then as Christ is called upon, so is he to 
be adored. And as we offer to God the Father, first of 
all, prayers, so must we also to the Lord Jesus Christ; 
and as we offer the supplications to the Father, so do we 
also to the Son ; and as we offer thanksgivings to God, 

g Horn. 1, in Levit. h Horn. 9. in Genes. 

H 



86 

so do we offer thanksgivings to our Saviour. For the 
holy Scripture teaches us, that the same honor is to be 
given to both, that is to God the Father, and the Son, 
when it says, that they may honor the Son, as they honor 
the Father." * 

" We must pray to the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, 
that he would take away that mist and darkness which is 
contracted by the filth of our sins, and dims the sight of 
our souls ;" k and several others to the same purpose. 

" He who makes a good confession, ascribes to Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost, each their respective peculiars, but 
will nevertheless confess that there is no diversity of na- 
ture or of substance. l When we come to the grace of 
baptism, renouncing all other gods and lords, we confess 
one God alone, the Father, the Sen, and the Holy Ghost." 1 
We believe the faith of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in 
width all believe who are joined to the Church of GodP " 
According to this father, all who do not believe in the 
doctrine of the Trinity, do not belong to the Church of 
God ; the Church, therefore, in his day, believed the doc- 
trine of the Trinity to be essential to salvation. " Wo 
who worship and adore no creature, but Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, as we err not in our worship, so neither in- 
deed do we transgress in our actions and conversation. ° 
In short, it is an impious crime, we may say, to wor- 
ship any other besides Father, and Son, and Holy Spi- 
rit."* 

The form of the baptismal Sacrament, established by 
Christ himself, was sufficient to warrant the primitive 
Church in believing that, in that sacred ordinance, they 
(i confessed one God alone, the Father the Son and the 
Holy Ghost." " Go ye therefore," said our Lord to his 
Apostles after his resurrection, " Go ye therefore, and 
teach [or, make disciples of] all nations, baptising them 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 



i Orig. Cora, in Rom. 10. lib. 8. p. 478. 

k Bingham's Antiq. B. 13. ch. 2. S. 3. p. 568. fol. ed. 

I In Epist. ad Rom. cap. 10. lib. 8. p. 479. 

m Horn. 8. in Exod. 20. p. 86. 

ii Horn. 5. in Levit. p. 126. 

o Lib. 1. cap. 1. in Rora. p. 338. p Ibid. p. 336 



87 

Holy Ghost." s Here is an equality of the persons in 
whose name this rite is to be performed. The Son and 
the Spirit are, in this sacred ordinance, placed upon an 
equality with the Father. If Christ be really a creature, 
as the" Unitarians believe, would it not be blasphemy to 
unite him in the same rite, and in the same form of ex- 
pression, with the uncreated God r If Christ, being a 
creature, had dared to unite his own name, with that of 
his God, would he not have been guilty of blasphemy and 
imposture ? But Christ was neither a blasphemer i/or an 
impostor, because God raised him from the dead to con- 
firm his doctrines, and after his resurrection, he placed his 
own name on an equality with the Father. The unity and 
equality of the three Persons of the Godhead, are still 
further seen in this holy ordinance. We are baptised into 
the name, not into the names of the three Persons, but in 
the singular number. St. Paul assures us that, there is but 
" one Lord, one faith, one baptism ;" r the three Persons, 
then, in whose name we are baptised, are but " one Lord." 
The Jews knew the true God in the first Person, and, 
therefore, if there were no other Persons in the unity of 
the Godhead than the first, whom they already worship- 
ped, it would not have been necessary, at their baptism, to 
have used any other name, than that with which they 
were already acquainted. On the other hand, the Gen- 
tiles had a multitude of idols whom they worshipped ; 
these they were commanded to relinquish, and to receive 
in their stead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
And every intelligent Jew, and every intelligent Heathen, 
must have believed, that these three Persons, so solemnly 
united in this important rite, was the God whom, as Chris- 
tians, they were commanded to worship and adore. 

Origen, again says, " Now the particulars, which were 
plainly treated in the apostolical instruction, are these : 
First, that there is one God, who made and composed all 
things, and who made them out of nothing, fee—that this 
God, as he had promised before by his prophets, sent the 
Lord Jesus Christ in the last days, &c. — then, that this 
Jesus Christ who came, was bom of the Father before 



q Matt, xxviii. 19. r JEph. 



88 

every creature : that he, when he had ministered to the 
Father in the creation of all things (for by him were all 
things made) emptying himself in the last days, was made 
man ; was incarnate, though God; and remained God, 
though made man. He assumed a body like unto our 
body, with this only difference, that he was born of the 
virgin by the Holy Ghost." 4 

" By the Gospel it is revealed, that all things were made 
by the Son, and that without him, nothing was made. Let 
him, then, who reads, understand from this, that the name 
of the Almighty is not more ancient in God than the 
name of the Father; for by the Son the Father is Al- 
mighty; for through Wisdom, which is Christ, God holds 
the universal dominion, not only by authority of him who 
has the dominion, but even by the spontaneous duty of 
those who are subject to him. But that you may confess 
that the Father and the Son possess one and the same 
omnipotence, as he is one and the same God and Lord 
with the Father, hear John in the Revelation speaking 
in this manner: These things saith he, which is, and 
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Rev. i. 8. 
But who is to come, the Almighty, besides Christ ? As 
none should be offended that the Father is God ; and that 
the Saviour likewise is God ; so none should take offence 
seeing the Father is Almighty, that it is also said, the Son 
is Almighty. For in this manner that will be true which 
he saith to the Father, For all mine are thine, and all 
thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. John, xvii. 10. 
But if all which belong to the Father are Christ's, among 
the all things appertaining: to the Father is also omnipo- 
tence, without doubt the only-begotten Son also ought to be 
omnipotent, that ail things which the Father hath, the Son 
may have also.'- ' 

Celsus, the philosopher," had charged the Christians 
with worshipping more Gods than one. Origen. in refut- 
ing him, refers to John, x. 30. I and my Father are one, 
and gives such an explanation as refutes Sabellianism ; he 
then adds, " We therefore, in the sense I have told yoti, 
worship but one God, the Father, and Son." v 

s A p. Pamp. Mart. apud. opera Jer. vol. 9. 

1 Peri Archon, vol. I. u See page 62. 

v Cont. Cels. p. 38'6. apud Fiddes' Theol. Spec. I. 391. 



89 

In his comment on the Epistle to the Romans, w he 
says of Father and Son, that " they are both one God ; be- 
cause the Son has no other fountain of his divinity, but 
the Father ; being (according to what Wisdom says of 
him) a most pure emanation from the one fountain, the 
Father." 

It is said of Origen, that his enemies found no fault in 
" him as touching the blessed Trinity ;" and Athanasius, 
Bishop of Alexandria, says, " that notable man and painful 
writer Origen, confirmeth in plain words the faith and opi- 
nion we have of the Son of God, in that he avoucheth 
him to be coeternal with the Father." x 



CYPRIAN, Bishop of Carthage. 



Thascius Ccecilius Cyprianus, was born in Africa, of 
heathen parents, and for some time taught rhetoric with 
great applause. He was converted to Christianity, A. D. 
246, and, subsequently, became Bishop of Carthage. 
He suffered martyrdom for the faith, September 14, A, 
D. 258. 

St. Cyprian insisted upon rebaptising heretics, and was 
reproved for it by Stephen, Bishop of Rome. In his argu- 
ments for the invalidity of heretical baptism, he asks, how 
any person baptised by heretics can be presumed to obtain 
remission of sins, and to become the temple of God ? " If 
he be thereby made the temple of God, I would ask, of 
what God it is ? Is it of the Creator ? He could not be 

w p. 467. vol. 2. ed. Bas. Fiddes, ibid. 

x Socrates Scholast Hist. Eccl. lib. 6. cap. 12. See a life of Origen 
in Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 1. Cave's Lives, II. p. 383. Water- 
land on Div. of Christ, p. 260- Bingham's Antiq. B. 10. ch. 2. S. 2. 
B. 13. ch. 2. S. 3. pp. 444. 566—568. fol. ed. Simpson on Deity of 
Jesus, pp. 153. 225. 299. 385. 510, 511. Lardner's Works, 1. 519. 4to 
Ed. 

H2 



90 

so, if he believed not in him. Is it of Christ? Neither 
can he be his temple, while he denies Christ to be God. 
Is it then of the Holy Ghost ? But since the three are 
one, how can the Holy Ghost have friendship- with him 
that is at enmity with either Father or Son ?" V. 

" Nor did Jesus Christ," says the holy martyr, " our 
God and Lord, teach us how to behave in this particular 
by word only; but his practice accompanied his in- 
structions, and he led us by example as well as by pre- 
cept." z 

" This is our God, not the God of all, but of us Chris- 
tians only who believe and trust in his name." a 

" Of this grace of God, this new economy, this latter 
method of salvation, the Word, and Son of God is made 
the messenger and manager, who by all the prophets, go 
as far backward as you please, was spoken of under that 
character, as a teacher sent from God, to enlighten man- 
kind sitting in darkness. This is the power, the Word, 
the Wisdom, the Glory of God. He descended into the 
womb of a Virgfrrf and through the operation of ^ie Holy 
Ghost, took upon him our flesh; and God by these won- 
drous means united himself to man. This Christ is our 
God, and being a Mediator between two, he put on the 
man, that he might lead him to God his Father; Christ 
became man, that man might become like Christ." h 

" Our Lord, after his resurrection, instructing his disci- 
ples how they should baptise, says : All power is given 
unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye therefore and teach 
all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. c Here he intimates 
the Trinity, in whose sacrament the nations were to be 
baptised. Does Marcion believe this Trinity ? , Does he 
believe the same Father the Creator, as we believe in ? 
Does he acknowledge the same one Son Christ, born of 
the Virgin Mary ; who, being the Word, was made flesh, 



y Cyprian Ep. 73 ad Jubaian, p. 203. Ed. Ox. Waterland on Tri- 
nity, pp. 345, 346. Bing. Antiq. B. 10. ch. 4. S. 4. pp. 445, 446. fol. ed. 
s In Pat. S 4. a In Pat. S. 16. 

b De vanit. idol. S. 6. c Matt, sxviii. 13, 19. 



91 

and suffered for our sins ? Marcion and all other heretics 
hold a very different faith." d 



NOVATIAN. 



Novatus, otherwise called Novatian, was a presbyter oi 
the Church of Rome, and endeavoured to invade the 
Episcopal chair, in opposition to Cornelius. He procured 
himself to be privately ordained a Bishop, and gave much 
trouble to the Church. He was originally a pagan philo- 
sopher, and flourished A. D. 251. 

Novatian was a man of great erudition, but of austere 
manners. He refused to readmit to the communion of the 
Church, those who had forsaken the faith during the time 
of persecution ; and insisted upon rebaptising those who 
joined the sect of which he became the leader. Upon the 
great doctrines of Christianity, however, he agreed with 
the Church. He says, (i If God the Father saves none but 
through God, then no one can be saved by God the Fa- 
ther, who does not confess that Christ is God; in whom, 
and by whom, the Father promises to give salvation. 
Wherefore, very justly, whosoever acknowledges him to 
be God, is in the way to be saved by Christ, who is God ; 
and whosoever doth not acknowledge him to be God, for- 
feits salvation, because he cannot otherwise have it, but in 
Christ as God." e 

In his exposition of the Creed, Novatian further says ; 
" that as our Saviour's being the Son of Man declares his 
humanity, so his being the Son of God is an undeniable 
proof of his Divinity : And Christ is not only a man, be- 

d Apud Ep. 73. See Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 3. Cave's 
Lives, II. p. 443. Milner's Church Hist. I. p. 309. Lardner's Works, 
II. p. 3. 4to ed. 

e Novat. c. 12. p.. 36. Waterland on Trinity, pp. 347, 348, 



92 

cause the Son of Man, but is also God, because the Son o f 
God."/ 

" But if," says Novatian, " when it belongs to God 
alone to know the secrets of the heart 5 Christ looks into 
the secrets of the heart ; but if, when it belongs to God 
alone to forgive sins, the same Christ forgives sins: but if 
when it is not the possible act of any man to come from 
heaven, Christ in his advent descended from heaven: but 
if, when no man can utter this sentence, I and my Father 
are one/ Christ alone, from a consciousness of his divinity, 
declared it, but if, lastly, the Apostle Thomas, when fur- 
nished with all the proofs and evidences of the divinity of 
Christ, answering, said unto Christ, " My Lord and my 
God:" h But if the Apostle Paul too in his writings says, 
Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the 
fleshy Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever :" * 
But if the same person publishes himself to have been 
constituted an Apostle not of men, neither by man, but by 
Jesus Christ. But if the same Paul contend for it, that 
he did not learn the Gospel from men, neither receive it 
by man. but by Jesns Christ, Christ is worthily God." k 



PAUL OF SAMOSATA. 



Paulus Samosatenus, was Bishop of Antioch, A. D. 
260. He denied the divinity of Christ, and caused much 
trouble to the Church. 

/ De Trinitat. pp. 500. 503. King's Crit. Hist, of Apostles' Creed, 
pp. 134, 135. 

g John, x. 30. h John, xx. 28. i Rom. ix. 5. 

k DeTrinit lib. 13. apud Simpson's Deity of Jesus, p. 243. See 
Waterland on Trinity, p. 347. Lardner's Works, II. p. 43r Milner's 
Church Hist. I. p. 351. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 6. cap. 43. gr. vel 42 
Han. 



93 

" He thought of Christ basely, abjectly, and contrary 
to the doctrine of the Church, to wit, that he was by nature 
a common man as we are." This blasphemous doctrine 
was condemned, and the heretic deposed from his dignity, 
by a council assembled at Antioch, A. D. 270. He was 
likewise excommunicated from the communion of the 
Church. In the Letter which was written by the Bishops 
who attended the council, to the Bishops of Rome and 
Alexandria, they say that, Paul " denied his God and 
Lord;" that " he hesitated to confess with them, that the 
Son of God descended from heaven," but said, " that 
Christ Jesus is of the earth." — " Wherefore," say they, 
" necessity constraining us to do so, we excommunicated 
the sworn adversary of God. w And these Fathers further 
declared " the Son to be the Wisdom, and Word, and 
Power of God, existing before all ages, not only in pre- 
determination, but in Essence and Person* God, the Son 
of God »i 



5T. GREGORY, Bishop of Neocoesarea. 



St. Gregory, usually called Gregory Thaumaturgus, 
was born in NeocsBsarea, in Pontus, of gentile parents, 
and became the disciple of the celebrated Origen. He 
was ordained A. D. 245, became Bishop of his native 
country, and died A. D. 270. 

This celebrated Prelate has left us a confession of the 
Trinity, in the Creed drawn up for the use of his own 
church. " There is one God, the Father of the living 
Word, of the Essential Wisdom, and Power, and of the 

I Paues Antiochem in Epist. ad Paul. Samos. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 
Jib. 7. cap. 27, 28 30. gr. vel 26, 27. 29. Han. See Water-land on 
Trinity, p. 326. Lardner's Works, I. p. 620. Milner's Church Hist 
i. p. 454 Simpson's Deity of Jesus, p. 619. Jortin's Remarks on 
Eccl. Hist. I. p. 422. 



94 

Eternal express image ; the perfect begotten of the per- 
fect • the Father of the only begotten Son. There is one 
Lord, the only Son of the only Father, God of God, the 
character and express image of the Godhead, the opera- 
tive Word, the providing Wisdom of the Constitution of 
the Universe, the efficient power of the whole creation, 
the true Son of the true Father, invisible of the invisible, 
incorruptible of the incorruptible, immortal of the immor- 
tal, and eternal of the eternal : And there is one Holy 
Spirit, who proceedeth from God, and by the Son is made 
manifest to men. The image of the Son, the perfect 
likeness of the perfect: the life, the cause of life to the 
living. The holy fountain, holiness itself, the author of 
sanctification; by whom is manifested God the Father, 
who is over all, and in all, and God the Son, who is 
through all. There is a perfect Trinity, which in glory, 
eternity, and sovereignty, is inseparably and inalienably 
united," &c. m 

It is recorded to the honor of this excellent and zealous 
servant of God, that when he was made Bishop, Neocse- 
sarea and its neighbourhood, consisted entirely of Pagans; 
but when he died, he left it as full of Christians, whom 
he had converted, and who retained the greatest respect 
for his Memory, which, says Socrates, was honoured in 
Athens, Berytus, Pontus, and, indeed, in all the earth. n 



m Shepherd on Common Prayer, I. pp. 226, 227. Waterland on 
Trinity, p. 233. Cave's Lives, II. p. 477. Milner's Church Hist. I. p. 
466. Bingham's Antiq. B. x. ch. 5. S. 5. p. 446. fol. ed. Lardner's 
Works, I. p. 591. 4to ed. Simpson's Deity of Jesus, pp. 515, 516. 

n Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 6. cap. 30, gr. vel. 29 Han. Socrat. Scho- 
last. Hist. Eccl. lib 4. cap. 27. gr. vel. 22 Han. Jortiu's Remarks on 
Eccl. Hist. I. p. 388. 



95 



DIONYSIUS, Bishop of Alexandria. 



This amiable disciple of Origen, was by birth a gentile. 
He succeeded Heraclas, in the chair of the Catechetical 
School at Alexandria, and, at his death, was made Bishop 
of that See, A. D, 246, and died A. D. 265. He was call- 
ed by the ancients, Dionysius the Great, on account of his 
profound learning, his consummate wisdom and prudence. 

Dionysius says, " The Father being eternal, the Son 
must be eternal too, Light of Light. The names by me 
mentioned are undivided and inseparable: when \ named 
the Father, before I mentioned the Son, I signified the Son 
in the Father. If any of my false accusers suspect that, 
because I called God creator and former of all things, I 
made him creator of Christ, let him consider, that I before, 
styled him Father, and so the Son was included in Him,' 3 
&c.° 

He calls Christ — uncreated and the Creator — God by 
nature, the Word of the Father — consubstantial with the 
Father. Christ is immutable, as being God the Word — 
Christ is God over all, our refuge. Jesus Christ, who is 
God over all, the Lord and Gocl of Israel.-— He shall not 
escape unpunished, who blasphemes the benevolent Spirit : 
for the Spirit is God.".? 

In a Letter to Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, he concludes 
with a doxology to the Trinity, which he avers to be " a 
form and canon, or rule, of giving thanks and praise to 
God, received from the fathers who lived before their 
times, which in common with them, he, himself used, and 
does not now decline to write — To God, both the Father 
1 ' ^ 

o Dionys. Alex. Apud Anathas. de Seutentia Dionysti, pp. 254. 257 
Waterland on Trinity, pp. 240, 241. 350—353. 

p Epist. adv. Paul ? passim. 



^6 
.and the Son, vith the Holy Ghost, be glory and dominion 

for ever and ever. Amen." 9 



DIONYSIUS, Bishop of Rome. 



DionysiuS Romanus, was consecrated Bishop of Rome, 
July 22, A. D. 259, and died Dec. 26, A. D. 260. 

In some valuable fragments preserved by Athanasius, 
Dionysius calls the doctrine of the Trinity, the most vene- 
rable doctrine of the Church of God. lie says further, 
11 nor are they less to blame, who think the Son a creature, 
and who suppose the Lord to have come into being, as n 
he were one of the things that were really made. The 
sacred oracles assign him a generation, suitable and pro- 
per, not a formation and creation. Wherefore it must be 
blasphemy of no ordinary size, but of the first magnitude, 
to say that, the Lord was a kind of handy work. For ii 
he began to be, he once was not. But he existed eter- 
nally, if so be that he is in the Father, as himself testifies, 
and if Christ be the Word, and Wisdom, and Power." r 

" We ought not either to divide the wonderful Divine 
Unity into three Deities, or to mutilate the dignity and the 
excellent greatness of our Lord, by saying, that he is cre- 
ated ; but to believe in God the Father Almighty, and in 
Jesus Christ his Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and to be- 
lieve that the Word is united to the God of the Universe. 
For, says he, I and the Father are one : and, I in the Fa- 



q Frag ap. Basil, apud Shepherd on Common Prayer, I. p. 96. 
Lardner's Works, I. p. 609. Milner's Church Hist. I. pp. 365. 441. 
447. 452. 470. Jortin's Remarks on Eccl. Hist. I. p. 413. Euseb. 
Hist. Eccl lib. 7. cap. 5. gr. vel 4 Han. kc. Simpson's Deity of 
Jesus, p. 517. Cave's Lives, II. p. 493. 

r Apud Athanas. I. pp. 231, 232. Waterland on Trinity, p. 348, 



97 

iher, and the Father in me : so would the Divine Trinity^ 
and the sacred doctrine of the monarchy be preserved." * 



LUCIAN. 



Lucian was born at Samosata, and was a presbyter of 
the Church at Antioch. He was a learned and eloquent 
man, and a laborious student of the Scriptures. He gave 
to the world a new edition of the Septuagint, and suffered 
martyrdom under Dioclesian, Jan. 7? A. D. 312. He 
wrote a confession of faith against the Sabellians, from 
which the following extracts are made : 

" We believe according to the tradition of the Gospels 
and Apostles, in One God the Father Almighty, Creator, 
and Maker, and Governor of all things, of whom are ail, 
things: And in one Lord Jesus Christ his only-begotten 
Son, who is God, by whom are all things, who was begot- 
ten of the Father, God op God, Whole of Whole, One of 
One, Perfect of Perfect, King of King, Lord of Lord, — 
who was always from the beginning, God the Word, with 
God, according to what is saicl in the Gospel, and the 
Word was God. vt 



s Frag. ap. Athan. Apud Simpson's Deity of Jesus, p. 517. See 
Bishop Bull's Works, II. p. 132. Lardner s Works, II. p. 69. Milner's 
Church Hist. I. p. 459. 

t Hilar, de Syoodis, p. 107. Apud Bingh Antiq. B. 10. ch- 5. S. 6. 

Lucian in Symb. ap. Athanas. de Synod, apud Stackhouse's Body of 

Divinity, P. 1. ch. 26. p. 126. Shepherd on Common Prayer, I. p. 

• £30. Lardner's Works, II. p. 109. Simpson's Deity of Jesus, p. 521. 



98 



ARNOBIUS. 



Aknobjus was of gentile extraction, and taught rhetoric 
at Sicca, in Numidia, Africa. From a blind and zealous 
idolator, he became a convert to Christianity, and an elo- 
quent writer in its defence, about A. D. 298. In one of 
his works, a heathen is represented as saying of the Chris- 
tians : The gods are not enemies to you because you 
adore the omnipotent God, but because you deify, and 
with your daily prayers, worship a man that was born, 
and, which is most infamous, one that was put to death 
with vile persons on a cross." u In the days of Arnobius, 
Christ was worshipped as God. 






I was unwilling to lengthen this work by the addition of 
every name, and every quotation, which could have 
been added to the mass of evidence already adduced. 
The essential deity of Christ, was the fundamental article 
of the Christian faith in the primitive Church. Christ, 
therefore, was worshipped by the primitive Christians, as 
God the Redeemer, the second Person in the ever-blessed 
Trinity. The Fathers and Martyrs of the primitive 
Church, universally ascribed deity to Christ, but in unity 
with the Father. Beside those whose writings I have 
already mentioned, I might have quoted for this purpose, 
in the Second Century, the writings of Quadratus, Bishop 

u Lib. 1. p. 19. Apud CriticalHist. of the Apos. Creed, pp. 60, 61. 
"Lardner's Works, II. p. 244. 



99 

of Athens; Aristides, a converted Athenian philosopher; 
jVliltiades; Hegesippus ; Alexander, a martyr of Rome; 
Epipodius, and another Alexander, martyrs of Lyons , 
Andronicus, a martyr ; Athenogines; and others: In the 
Third Century, Africanus ; Theognostus Alexandrinus ; 
Methodius, Bishop of Tyre, and martyr ; Porphyrius, a 
martyr of Palestine; Acacius, Bishop of Antioch, and 
martyr; Nicephorus and Sapricius, martyrs; Pionius, a 
martyr of Smyrna; Pierius, of Alexandria. 

From the time of these holy Martyrs and Confessors, 
down to the present day, the belief in Christ's essential 
Deity, has been preserved among the faithful followers of 
a crucified Redeemer, as the foundation of all our hopes 
in the promises of the Gospel. If he be not God, we have 
no security in believing that the promises which he made 
in his own name, must inevitably be fulfilled. If he be 
God, we have a sure and certain hope, that he will confess 
those before his Father, in heaven, who are not ashamed 
to confess him befoie men; v " for he is faithful who pro- 
mised;" 10 and " heaven and earth shall pass away; but 
his word shall not pass away." x 

v Matt. x. 32, 33. w Heb.x.23, x Luke,xxi.3& 



100 



CHAPTER V. 



Of the two natures in Christ; the "Divine and Human 



THERE are several passages of Scripture which ex- 
press the human nature of Christ. In order to understand 
them, we must keep in mind that Christ assumed that na- 
ture to redeem the world, through the blood of his cross, 
In his divine nature he was incapable of suffering, and, 
therefore, he assumed humanity, that the nature which 
sinned might suffer. Although the Scriptures, in some 
places, speak of him as man, it does not necessarily follow, 
that we must believe him to be no more than man ; for the 
Scriptures, in other places, ascribe to him the Attributes of 
God. No one, for a moment, can believe the Father to 
be a created being, because the Scriptures call him a man. 
" The Lord is a man of war." a Shall we, then, infer, 
that Christ is a mere man, or a created being, because he 
is called, in his humiliation, a man, and the Son of Man ? 
11 Christ is the image of the invisible God." b But " God 
is a Spirit." c Then Christ can only be, in his divine 
nature, the image of the invisible God. Christ, in his 
visible, human form, could not be an image of the invisible 
God, who is a Spirit. In his divine, invisible nature, being 
of the same essence with the Father, he is " tne image of 
the invisible God." If Christ were a mere man, and could 

a Esod. xv. 3. b Co!, i. 15. c John, iv. 24 



10! 

effectually intercede, and make atonement, for another, 
why could not every man intercede for himself? " But 
none can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to 
God a ransom for him." d Besides, " there is but one me- 
diator between God and men ;" e " Jesus Christ the 
righteous."/ If he were a mere man, he could not be 
Jesus Christ the righteous, because David, St. Paul, and 
St. John have declared that " there is none that doeth 
good, no not one;"? " there is none righteous, no, not 
one ;" " for all have sinned and come short of the glory 
of God;" A and " if we say that we have no sin, we de- 
ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." • The whole 
human race, from Adam to the present day, are sinners in, 
the sight of God, and are accepted at the throne of grace, 
through the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ. Shall 
a man come before the Most High God " with burnt offer- 
ings, with calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be pleased 
with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of 
oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the 
fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?" fc No, says the 
Apostle 5 " it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of 
goats should take away sins : wherefore when he [Christ] 
cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou 
wouldest notj but a body hast thou prepared me : In burnt 
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure 5 
then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is 
written of me, to do thy will, O God." l 

Considering, then, that Christ assumed our nature, and 
became man, that he might be capable of dying ; that he 
possessed all the sinless infirmities of our nature, and was, 
at the same time, essentially God, we shall be able to un- 
derstand the several passages of Scripture which relate 
to his human nature alone, abstracted from his divinity. 

d Ps. xlix. 7. Dr. Priestley was decidedly of this opinion. He 
says, " it immediately follows from Iris [Socinus'j principles, that 
Christ being only a man, though ever so innocent, his death could not 
in any proper sense of the word, atone for the sins of other men " 
Hist, of Cor. v. p. 272. See page 13. 

e 1 Tim. ii. 5. f \ John, ii. 1. g Ps. xiv. 3. 

h Rom. iii. 10. 23. i 1 John,i. 8. k Micah, vi. 6, 7 

I Heb. x. 4—8. Ps. xl. 6. &c. 1. 8. &c. Isa. i. 11. Jer.vi.2o! 
Amos, v. 21,22. 

12 



102 

When Christ says, t{ My Father is greater than I," m -he 
makes an express allusion to his human nature and condi- 
tion, in which he is inferior to the Father; but if he was 
a mere man, or any created being, it would have been an 
act of the greatest impudence to have asserted, that the 
Supreme God was greater than he. 

This passage must be contrasted with another : " I and 
my Father are one." n Christ did not mean to say that, 
he and the Father were one person, or, that he was the 
Father, or the Father was the Son ; but that the Father and 
the Son, being of the same nature or essence, are one, in 
spirituality, notwithstanding his own divinity was veiled in 
human flesh. A man and his son possess the same nature, 
•and in this respect are one, although in personality they 
are two. If Christ had been a man, or any created being, 
it would have been blasphemy in him to have placed him- 
self before the Supreme God : I and my Father are one. 
But in Christ " dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodi- 
ly." As the Son of God, possessing the same nature and 
essence with the Father, he possessed ail the attributes of 
Deity, and could exercise them when he pleased for his 
own, or his Father's glory, and not like Moses and the 
Prophets, to whom a special and limited power was com- 
mitted, on particular occasions. Christ, when about to 
work a miracle, sometimes had recourse to prayer, but he 
expressly declared, that he did it only " because of the 
people :" p that they might be convinced it was the power 
of God, and not the work of Beelzebub. « To prove that 
he had this power in himself, he says; "as the Father 
raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them ; even so the 
Son, quickeneth whom he will." 7 " This is an evident 
declaration of his divinity ; " as the Father raiseth up the 
dead," by his own sovereign power, even so does the Son. 
But tt the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he 
seeth the Father do." ' And why ? Because " Christ and 
the Father are one;"' because " Christ is in the Father, 
and the Father in Christ ;" u their nature and essence be- 

m John,xiv. 28. n John, x. 30. o Col. ii.9. 

p John,xi.42. q Matt. xii. 24. r John, v. 21. 

s Jo hD, r. 19. t John, x. 30. u John, xiv. 11. 



103 

ing the same, they are united in the Godhead ; and, there- 
fore, " What things soever the Father doeth, that also 
doeth the Son likewise." v But could a mere man say this? 
Dare any created being, without blasphemy, say, that, 
whatsoever is done by the Supreme God, that he does 
likewise? Christ, then, is neither a mere man, nor a 
created being ; and, being uncreated, is God; for none 
can possibly do, whatsoever the Supreme God can do, but 
God himself alone. 

. Again. " I and my Father are one ;" and " I am in 
the Father, and the Father in me." w If Christ were not 
in nature and essence the same as the Father, how could 
he be omnipresent ? for God alone is omnipresent. " Can 
any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ? 
saith Jehovah. Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith 
Jehovah ?" x " The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, 
beholding the evil and the good."^ And yet Christ 
says, " Where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them." * Could any 
being less than God say this? Thousands and tens of 
thousands of congregations and assemblies of pious Chris- 
tians, over the surface of the habitable globe, worship at 
the same time, the same God, and Jesu? Christ is in the 
midst of each, in every place, and at the same moment. 
Surely, Christ is God, for omnipresence is an attribute of 
Jehovah alone. 

Again. Our Redeemer says; " No man hath ascended 
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even 
the Son of Man which is in heaven." a Here, again, 
Christ declares his deity by his omnipresence. He was 
on earth speaking to Nicodemus, and declared that he was 
at the same moment, in heaven; His divine nature filling 
all space. As ubiquity belongs alone to Jehovah, Christ 
is Jehovah. 

<' There is one God, and one Mediator between God 
and Men, the man Christ Jesus." h This is the faith and 
doctrine of the Christian Church. " There is one God;" 

v John, v. 19. w John, x. 30. xiv. 11. x Jer. xxiii. 24. 

y Prov. sv. 3. s Matt, xviii. 20. a John, iii. 13. 

b 1 Tim. ii. 5. 



104 

every Trinitarian has this faith. " There is one Mediator, 
the man Christ Jesus ;" every Trinitarian firmly believes 
this. Christ, in his human nature, was truly man, and in 
his human nature, he became the '« Mediator between God 
and Men." We believe that for this purpose he assumed 
our nature; " the Word being made flesh." c We believe 
that " God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful 
flesh;" d that the human race might " have an Advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," and to be 
" the propitiation for our sins;" e " wherefore he is able 
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by 
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."/ 
But while we believe that Christ, in his human nature, 
was truly man ; that he " took our infirmities, and bare 
our sicknesses," s and " was in all points tempted like as 
we are, yet without sin ;" h we, at the same time, believe 
in his essential divinity. " The Eternal God is our re- 
fuge." j " From everlasting to everlasting thou art 
God." k Eternity, therefore, belongs to God. u Out of 
thee [Bethlehem] shall he come forth unto me that is to be 
ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, 
from everlasting." 1 This is an acknowledged prophecy 
of Christ. The Scribes and Pharisees understood it of the 
Messiah ; m and Christ, agreeably to the prophecy, was 
born at Bethlehem ; n although he was " from everlast- 
ing." This is likewise asserted by St. Paul ; " Jesus 
Christ the same yesterday, to-day and for ever." ° And 
it is finally confirmed by Christ himself; " I am Alpha and 
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which 
is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." 
" I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." — " I am 
the first and the last ; 1 am he that liveth, and was dead ; 
and behold I am alive for evermore."^ But the title of 

c John, i. 14. d Rom. viii. 3. e 1 John, ii. 1,2. 

/ Heb. vii 25. g Matt. viii. 17. h Heb. iv. 15. 

i Deut xxxiii. 27. k Ps. xe. 2. I Mic v. 2. 

m Matt. ii. 5, 6. n Luke, ii. 4—8. o Heb. xiii. 8. 

p Rev. i. 8. 11. 17, 18. Dr. Doddridge, in his Family Expositor, has 
this note upon ver. 11. "1 am Alpha and Omega " I cannot forbear 
recording it, thai this text has done more than any other in the Bible, 
toward preventing me from giving into that scheme, which would 
make our Lord Jesus Christ no more then a deified creature." 



105 

" the first and the last," is claimed, exclusively, by God. 
" Thus saith Jehovah the King of Israel, and his redeemer 
Jehovah of Hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and 
beside me there is no God." * Then as Christ is " from 
everlasting" — " the same yesterday, to-day and for ever" 
— as he is " the first and the last" — and as there is no God 
besides Jehovah, who is the first and the last, Jesus Christ 
is the Eternal God. 

*< Why callest thou me good ? There is none good but 
one, that is God." Matt. xix. 17. The man to whom this 
was spoken, believed Christ to be a mere man like him- 
self. Why do you then, says the Saviour, call me good, if 
you believe that 1 am no more than man ; God alone is 
good ? An opportunity was here given to the young man 
to declare his faith in Christ, as was in like manner given 
to the blind man, Matt. ix. 28, and to the Pharisees, Matt, 
xxii. 43. That this was our Lord's meaning, may be in- 
ferred from John, x. 11, where he calls himself" the good 
Shepherd," an expression, certainly, equivalent to " good 
Master," in Matt. xix. 16. 

" But to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not 
mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is 
prepared of my Father." Matt. xx. 23. Christ derived 
his human nature from the Father. He was sent into the 
world for certain purposes, and what he was commissioned 
to perform in his human nature, that he did, and nothing 
else. He expressly states this himself. <s The works 
which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works 
that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent 
me." r And again : *<I have finished the work which thou 
gavest me to do." s Christ was sent to reconcile us to 
God by the blood of atonement, t and not to dispose of 
seats in heaven. But he subsequently declared that he 
possessed this power in himself; " to him that overcometh 
will I grant to sit with me in my throne." u The former 
passage, therefore, has reference solely to his human na- 
ture. 

q Isa. xiiv. 6. r John, v. 36. s Ibid. xvii. 4. 

t Rom. v 9. 10, 11 u Rev. iii. 21. 



10G 

"I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught 
me, I speak these things." John, viii. 28. This is to be 
explained in the same manner as the foregoing passages, 
as it relates, solely, to the human nature of Christ. But 
we must compare this with some other passages. " What- 
soever ye ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father 
may be glorified in the Son." And Christ again repeats 
it : " If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it." 
John, xiv. 13, 14. Either the Saviour did, or did not, pos- 
sess the power of giving a thing in his own right. If he 
did, his power was not delegated ; if he did not, he could 
not be certain that he had any thing to give. In the last 
passages quoted, Christ declares that he does possess this 
power ; and we fare not doubt his word. His authority, 
therefore, was not delegated, and must have appertained 
to a higher nature than any creature can claim. Christ, 
therefore, is God. 

" But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the 
angels ivhich are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Fa- 
ther." v If we always keep in mind the two natures in 
Christ ; that he was man, as well as God ; we shall readily 
perceive that this text applies to his human nature. As 
man, his knowledge was progressive j w but as God, he was 
omniscient. He was sent to redeem the world, and not to 
reveal the secret things which Jehovah hath reserved to 
himself. x The day of judgement is to come unexpectedly 
like a thief in the night, that man may be in a constant 
state of preparation, for the awful moment. The day of 
Judgement may be said so to come, to ev«ry individual of 
the human race ; for as we lie down in the grave, so shall 
we rise to judgement, with all our sins and imperfections 
upon our heads. » That this text has merely a reference 
to the human nature of Christ, we may be convinced by 
examining the passages which declare him to be omniscient, 
and, therefore, God. 

" Thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the 
children of men."* Again. "1 Jehovah search the 
hearts and try the reins, even to give every man according 

* Mark, xiii. 32. w Luke, ii. 52. x Acts, i. 7. 

y Eccl. ix. 10. x 1 Kings, viii. 39. 



107 

to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doing.'] a 
*fhis attribute belongs alone to Jehovah; but Christ 
ascribes it to himself. " Write these things saith the Son 
€ f God-— All the Churches shall know that I am he which 
searcheth the reins and hearts ; and I will give unto every 
one of you according to your works." 6 Therefore Christ 
is Jehovah who searcheth the reins and the hearts. 

Jehovah declares that, he searcheth the heart and the 
reins, <{ even to give every man according to his ways, and 
according to the fruit of his doing." But it is Christ who 
is to give every man according to his ways. " For we 
must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that 
every one may receive the things done in his body, accord- 
ing to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.'* * 
Christ, therefore, is Jehovah. 

But the Unitarians will urge against this conclusion, the 
evidence of St. Luke, that Gocl * s hath appointed a day, in 
the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that 
man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given 
assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from 
the dead. " c We believe with the Scriptures, that God 
will judge the world, " by that man whom he hath ordain- 
ed." Christ, in his human nature, became our Mediator, 
and in the same nature will be our Judge. And for ever 
be adored that Grace, which committed the Judgement of 
the great day, to the Redeemer of our souls ; for as he was 
" God manifested in the flesh,"/ and u was in all points 
tempted like as we are," he can be " touched with the feel- 
ing of our infirmities." s But can a mere man ; can any 
created being, judge the world in righteousness ? Can any 
created being make manifest the counsels of the heart ? h 
But St. Paul expressly declares that Christ is not a man. 
4i Paul, an Apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by 
Jesus Christ." l As omniscience alone can judge the hearts 
of men, Christ must be Omniscient, and therefore God. 
We likewise believe with the Scriptures, that, as the Medi- 

a Jer. xvii. 10. b Rev ii. 18. 23. 

c See likewise Ps. vii. 9. xxvi. 2. Jer. xi. 20. xx. 12. John, i, 48 
—.50. ii. 24, 25. vi. 64. xvi. 30. xxi. 17. Acts, i. 24, 25. 

d 2 Cor. v. 10. e Acts, xvii 31. / 1 Tim. iii. 26, 

I Heb.iv. 35. h 1 Cor, iv. 6 i Gali i 



108 

aior between God and Man, Christ " will come in like 
manner as he was seen to go into heaven ;" k and in his 
human form, descend " with a shout, with the voice of the 
Archangel, and with the trump of God."' But if Christ 
comes in the body in which he purchased our redemption, 
he will likewise come as the Almighty God. "I am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith 
the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, 
the Almighty."™ But it is Christ who is to come; there- 
fore Christ is the Almighty. n 

When Christ spoke of God, he emphatically called him 
" my Father;" but when he spoke of him to'his disciples 
or the Jews, he always called him " your Father," or, 
"the Father." i* He never in conversation called him 
" our Father," 9 as being the common Father of all man- 
kind ; but when he gave a form of prayer for the use of 
Jiis disciples, he called him " our Father," in that sense of 
the words. This is strong evidence of a design to show 
there was a distinction. God was his Father, in one 
sense, and the people's Father in another. He was the 
Son of God in a peculiar sense, being his " own Son'' his 
"only-begotten Son,"' and possessing the same nature 
and essence with the Father, they % the Sons of God by 
adoption into his kingdom. 8 " No man knoweth the Son, 
but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, 
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
him."' " The Servant abideth not in the house for ever ; 
but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make 
you free, ye shall be free indeed." u u Father, the hour 
is come ; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee." v 
These texts evidently prove a peculiar sonship in Christ. 

The Jews perfectly understood the peculiar, and proper 
meaning, of the title Son of God. This is evident from 

k Acts, i. 11. I IThess.iv. 16. m Rev. i. 8. 

n 1 Cor. i. 7, 8. 2 Cor. v. 10. 1 Thess. iv. 16. 

o John, ii. 16. viii. 38. 49. 54. xvii. 1. 5. 11. 21. 

p The Gospels, passim. q Matt. vi. 9. 

r Rom. viii. 3. John, i. 18. iii. 16. 18. 

s Gal. iv. 5. Eph. i. 5. Rom. viii. 15. John, i. 12. They are 
called Sons of God by " adoption," to distinguish them from Christ; 
the Son of God by Nature. 

t Matt. xi. 27. u John, viii. 35, 36. v Ibid. xvii. 1. 



109 

Agur s inquiry : " Who hath ascended up into heaven, or 
descended ? w Who hath gathered the wind in his fists ? 
Who hath bound the waters in a garment ? Who hath 
established all the ends of the earth ? What is his name, 
and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?"* And 
when Nathaniel discovered that Christ was omniscient, he 
exclaimed, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the 
king of Israel." » The confession of Peter is to the same 
purpose; ^Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
God." z And when the High Priest attempted to make 
Christ criminate himself, he said, «< I adjure thee by the 
living God, to tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son 
of God." a So well did they understand this title as hav- 
ing a peculiar relation to God, that they insisted upon 
Pilate's condemning Christ for having assumed it. " We 
have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he 
made himself the Son of God." b They believed him to 
be a mere man 5 and, therefore, guilty of blasphemy. 

The Jews distinctly understood Christ to have assumed 
such a relation to the Father, as no created being could 
claim. While he was hanging upon the cross, they ex- 
claimed, " he trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if 
he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God." c 
They, certainly, did not mean to say, that he was the Son 
ot God by creation, d or by grace and adoption,; c but 
they meant it in the sense of St. Paul, when he says, 
" God sent his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh;" ■/ 
and in the sense of St. John, when he says, " the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.'''' £ 

It is worthy of remark, that Chrkr, while on earth, was 
called the Son of Man, to shmv his human character, and 
that he could be " touched with the feeling of our infirmi- 
ties;" h but after his ascension, he was called so but in two 
instances. Stephen, in his dying moments, so called him, 
but, at the same time, prayed to him as God. This holy 
protomartyr, "being full of the Holy Ghost," could not be 

zv Compare this with John, iii. 13. Acts, i. 11. Eph.iv. S. 9, 10. 
x Prov. xxx. 4. y John? i. 49. z Matt. xvi. 16. John, vi. 69 
a Matt. xxvi. 63. b John, xix. 7. c Matt, xxvii. 43. 

d Job. xxxviii. 7. Lnke, iii. 38. e 1 John, iii. 1. 

/ Rom. viii. 3 g 2 John, 3. h Heb. W. 15, 

K 



110 

mistaken in the object of his worship ; yet he died, pray- 
ing, " Lord Jesus receive my Spirit — Lord, lay not this sin 
to their charge ;"* the very words addressed to the Father, 
by Christ himself, in his last moments on the cross. k 
Christ is again called the Son of Man, when directing the 
Evangelist to write on subjects connected with his Media- 
torial kingdom, l which he had purchased with his blood, 
in his human character. 

t Acts, vii. 55, 56. 59, 60. k Luke, xxiii. 34. 46. I Rev. i. 13. 



Ill 



CHAPTER VI, 



Of Christ's Appearance on Earth, before 1m Incarnation. 






JEHOVAH is said visibly to have appeared on earth. 
Gen. xviii. passim. Exod. xxiv. 10. Isa. vi. 1. But 
Scripture, as well as reason, assures us, the Father was 
not, and could not be seen. John, i. 18. v. 37- 1 Tim. vi. 
16. Heb. xi. 27. Col. i. 15. The person spoken of as 
Jehovah, when visibly appearing to men, is sometimes 
expressly called the Angel of the Lord, Gen. xviii. 1, 2. 
xxii. 15, 16. xxxi. 11. 13. Exod. iii. 2. 4. xiii. 21, 
compared with xiv. 19. 24. Ex. xxiv. 9 — 11 — Gen. 
xlviii. 15, 16. Numb. xx. 16, compared with Ex. xx. 2. 
Judges, vi. 12. 14. Isa. lxiii. 9- Zech. iii. 1, 2. xii. 8. 
He is also called the Captain of the Lord's host, Josh. v. 
"14, 15, compared with vi. 2, and the Angel in whom the 
name of God was, Exod. xxiii. 21. 

Various things said to be spoken by, or addressed to, 
Jehovah, in the Old Testament, are said in the New to 
be spoken of, done by, or addressed to Christ, when such 
passages are referred to in the New. 1 Cor. x. 9. Heb. 
xi. 26. i. 8 — 13, compared with Psal. cii. 25, &c. John, 
xii. 41. compared with Isa. vi. 9, 10. ° 

The Fathers of the Church were decided in the belief, 
that Christ had appeared on earth, before his incarnation. 

a Doddridge's Lectures? II. pp. 158, 159. 



112 

See Justin Martyr, 5 Ireneus, 6 Tertullian, d Clemens Alex- 
andrinus/ Origen,/ Theophilus of Antioch,* Cyprian, h 
Hilary/ St. Basil,* St. Athanasius/ St. Cyril of Jerusa- 
lem," 1 and Theodoret. 71 

The appearance of Christ, before his incarnation, suffi- 
ciently establishes his pre-existence ; but the following 
passages may be consulted for this purpose : John, i. 1 — 
4. 14. hi. 13. 31. vi. 38. 50. 62. viii. 23. 38. 42. 58. 
xiii. 3. xv. 15. xvi. 25—30. xvii. 1. 5. 8. 24. Phil, 
ii. 6, 7, 8. 1 Cor. xv. 15, 16. 47. Heb. i. 2, 3, ii. 9. 
16. 14. 1 Pet. Hi. 19, 20. Rev. i. 8. 11. 13. 17, 18.— 
Compare Isa. vi. passim, with John, xiii. 4t. Isa. lxiii. 9< 
Ex. xx. 21— John, i. 3. Col. i. 15, 16, 17. Heb. i. 2. 
8. Eph. iii. 9. 

If Christ appeared on earth before his Incarnation, 
his pre-existence is established, and he is not a mere 
man. 

b Apol. 1. p. 95. c Lib. 4. cap. 23. d Adv. Prax. cap. 16. 

e Strom. 7. /In Joan. g Ad. Autal. lib. 2. p. 100. 

h Test. Adv. Jud. lib. 2. sec. 5, 6. i De Trinit. lib. 4. 

fe Cont. Eunom. lib. 2. I Dial. 3. de Trin. m Cat. 14. 

n In Exod- 3. 2. kc. Apud Simpson's Deity of Jesus, pp. 134 — 138. 

o " When God appeared to Moses in the bush, he commanded him 
to " put his shoes from off his feet, because the place whereon he 
stood was holy ground," Exod. iii. 5. In those days this was an usual 
token of reverence during divine worship, when men considered 
themselves as in the more immediate presence of God. It was fit 
therefore Moses should express the same kind of religious veneratioa 
in a place, which God, by manifesting himself in so extraordinary a 
manner, was pleased to render, pro tempore, a temple, or holy place. 
For the same reason Joshua is commanded to pay the like homage 
before the " captain of the host of the Lord," Josh. v. 15. who was 
undoubtedly ''the angel of God's presence, mi whom his name is," 
even the divine Logos : for it is said, Joshua " fell on his face to the 
earth, and worshipped him," ver. 14. This we cannot suppose he 
would have done, if he had esteemed him only a created angel, or that 
if he had done it, his worship would not have met with such a rebuke 
as the angel gave to St. John, " See thou do it not; for I am thy fel- 
low-servant— worship God," Rev. xxii. 9." Jennings' Jewish Antiqui- 
ties, p. 122 



ns 



CHAPTER VII. 



Divine Names, Titles, fyc. applied to Christ, in the 
Scriptures. 



JEHOVAH. This is appropriated to God, Ps. lxxxiii. 
18. Isa. xlv. 5. xlii. 8; but is given to Christ, Jen xxiii. 
6. Isa. xlv. 23 — 25. ^compared with Rom. xiv. 10 — 13. 
Isa. xl. 3, compared with Luke, i. 76. and Isa. vi. 1. 9, 10. 
with John, xii. 40, 41. Zech. xi. 12, 13. 

God. Matt. i. 23. John, i. 1, 2. xx. 28. 1 Tim. iii. 
16. 2 Pet. i. 1. 

The true God. 1 John, v. 20, 21. compare 1 John, 
i. 2. and John, xvii. 3. 

The great and mighty God. Tit. ii. 13. Isa. ix. 6, 
compare Deut. x. 17. Jer. xxxii. 18. 

The only wise God. Jude, 24, 25. compare Eph. v. 
26, 27. Rom. xvi. 27- 

The only God. Isa. xlv. 15. 17. 21, 22, 23. compared 
with Rom. xiv. 11. 

God blessed for ever. Rom. ix. 5, compare 2 Cor. 
xi. 31, and Rom. i 25. 

The God op Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Exod. iii. 
6. compare Acts, vii. 30 — 33. Hos. xii. 3 — 6; and Exod. 
iii. 14, 15. with John, viii. 58. 

Lord of Hosts. Isa. viii. 13, 14. compared with 1 
Pet. ii. 6 — 9. Ps. cxviii. 22. Matt. xxi. 42. and 2 Sam. 
vi. 2. Isa. liv. 5, compared with 2 Cor. xi. 2. 
K2 



114 

King op Kings and Lord op Lords. Rev. xvii. 14. 
xix. 13 — 17. compared with Dent. x. 17- 1 Tim. vi. 14. 

The First and the Last. Rev. i. 17, 18. ii. 8. com- 
pare Isa. xli. 4. and xliv. 6. 

Omniscience. Col. ii. 3. Rev. ii. 23. John, xxi. 17. 
ii. 24, 25. Matt. xii. 25. Mark, ii. 7, 8. compared with 
1 Kings, viii. 39. and Jer. xvii. 9, 10. 

Omnipresence. Matt, xviii. 20. xxviii. ult. Col. i. 
17- Heb. i. 3. compare Jer. xxiii. 24. 

Almighty Power. Phil. iii. 21. Rev. i. 8. — The fol- 
lowing show that this refers to Christ : Rev. i. 11. 17, 18. 
ii. 8. xxii. 12, 13. 20. 

Eternity. Rev. i. 11. 17- Heb. vii. 3. Heb. xiii. 8. 
Prov. viii. 22, 23.*compare Ps. xc. 2. 

Immutability. Heb. i. 12. xiii. 8. compare Mai. iii. 
6. James, i. 17* Christ says, John, xvi. 15, " All thing3 
that the Father hath are mine ;" it is therefore reasonable 
to conclude that the Son possesses all the Attributes of the 
Father. a 

a Doddridge's Lectures, II. pp. 164 — 168 See Horae Solitari#» 
both volumes, passim. 



lie 



CHAPTER VIIL 



Worship given to Christ* 



RELIGIOUS Worship is confessedly due to the Su- 
preme God alone. " Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God, 
and serve him/' a " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God, and him only shalt thou serve." 6 This is the lan- 
guage of both Testaments ; and this is the language and 
faith of every Trinitarian. Jehovah, alone, is the object 
of our adoration and love. None beside him can be wor- 
shipped without idolatry. But, by the Scriptures, Jesus 
Christ is to receive the same honor as is given to the Fa- 
ther. John, v. 23. The Son and the Holy Ghost, being 
of the same nature and essence with the Father, are, with 
the Father, worshipped and glorified as one God. 

From these premises, the following syllogism can be 
formed : 

Major: Religious worship is due to Jehovah alone: 
Minor : But by the Scriptures, religious worship is to be 

given to Christ : 
Conclusion : Therefore, Christ is Jehovah. 
The following texts will establish the minor proposition : 
" Let all the Angels of God worship him." [Christ.! 
Heb. i. 6. 

a Deut. vi. 13. b Matt. iv. 10, 



116 

" And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the the throne 
and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, 
stood a Lamb as it had been slain. — And he came and 
took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon 
the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four 
beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the 
Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials 
full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they 
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the 
book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, d 
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And I be- 
held, and I heard the voice of many angels round about 
the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number 
of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou- 
sands of thousands ; saying with a loud voice, worthy is 
the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and 
wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 
And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and 
under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that 
are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and 
glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the 
four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders 
fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and 
ever." Rev. v. 6 to end. 

Thus all in heaven, and on the earth, " honour the Son, 
even as they honour the Father." John, v. 23. 

" At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things 
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the 
earth." Phil. ii. 10. All the hosts of heaven and earth, 
and even the inhabitants of the infernal world, shall 
" honor the Son, even as they honour the Father." 

When Stephen, the protomartyr, was stoned by the 
Jews, he " called upon God, saying, Lord Jesus receive my 
Spirit — Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Acts, vii. 
59, 60. 

" Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to 
them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be 

c John,i. 29. Rev.i. 17, 18. vii. 14. xiii. 8. d Ibid. i. 18. 



117 

saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of 
Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and ours." 1 Cor. i. 2. 

" And here he hath authority from the Chief Priests 
to bind all that call on thy name." Acts, ix. 14. 

" And when they were come into the house, they saw 
the young child, with Mary his mother, and fell down, and 
worshipped him." Matt. ii. 2. 8. 11. 

" And, behold, there came a Leper and worshipped him, 
saying, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean." 
JMatt. viii. 2. See ix. 18. 

" Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped 
him, saying, of a truth thou art the Son of God." Matt. 
xitf. 33. 

" Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came 
and held him by the feet, and worshipped him." Matt, 
xxviii. 9. li And when thev saw him, they worshipped 
him." Ibid. 17- 

For the worship of Christ, and the Invocation of his 
name, consult the following texts : Matt. vii. 21. xviii. 20. 
John, v. 22, 23. xiv. 14. Acts, i. 24, 25. xxii. 16—22, 
Rom. i. 7. x. 13. xvi. 20. 24. 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8, 9- xiii. 
14. 1 Tim. i. 12. 2 Tim. iv. 18. 2 Pet. iii. 18. 2 
John, 3. 

If Jesus Christ knew that he was not entitled to religious 
worship, and yet received it, he not only was guilty of sin 
himself, but the cause of it in others. If Christ were a 
creature, he knew that he was not entitled to worship, and 
it is to be presumed that nothing would have induced him 
to receive it. When St. John was going to worship the 
Anggl, he forbid him, saying, " see thou do it not : I am 
thy fellow-servant — Worship God." Rev. xix. 10. And 
when the people of Lystra were going to offer sacrifice to 
St. Paul and St. Barnabas, they forbid it, (i saying, Sirs, 
why do ye these things? We also are men of like pas- 
sions with you." Acts, xiv. 15. Were the Angel, and. 
the people of Lystra, more righteous than Christ? It 
would be blasphemy to suppose so. As Christ, therefore, 
received divine worship, he was not a created beins:, but 
GocL 



118 



CHAPTER IX. 



Christ is God. 



THE following texts appear, imperatively, to demand 
our belief in the deity of Jesus Christ : 

" For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his 
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
God, the Everlasting Father." Isa. ix. 6. a 

" Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and 
shall call his name Immanuel 5" i . e. God with us. Isa. 
vii. 14. 6 

" This is the name whereby he shall be called, Jeho- 
vah our righteousness." Jer. xxiii. 6. c 

" Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." Ps. xlv. 
6. These words are applied to Christ by St. Paul. Heb. 
i. 8. d 

" Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM 
hath sent me unto you." Exod. iii. 14. Jesus Christ 
assumes this title to himself. " Before Abraham was, I 
AM." John, viii. 58. Possessing the incommunicable 
name of God, Christ is God. e 

a Compare this with the following texts : Matt. i. 23. Luke, ii. 11. 
John, iii. 16. Matt, xxviii. 18. Titus, ii. 13. 

b See Matt i. 23. 

c See an able and satisfactory criticism on the original text, in 
Hales on the Prophecies, pp. 200—206. 

d Ibid. pp. 59, 60. 

e Compare these with John, xiii. 19. Col. i. 17. Rev. i. 8. Con- 
sult Hales on the Pro. p. 216, &c. 



119 

" The Word was God." John, i. 1./ 

" Of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who 
is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen." Rom. ix. 5. 

« God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." 
2 Cor. v. 19. s" 

" Jesus saith unto him — he that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father." John, xiv. 9. Can any created being 
say this? 

" Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious ap- 
pearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
Christ." Titus, ii. 13. h 

" Through the righteousness of our God and Saviour 
Jesus Christ." 2 Pet. i. l'.« 



/ See Philo's description of the Logos, pp. 35, 36. 

g ''It is allowed on all hands, that the world was reconciled by- 
Christ Jesus to the one, only, great, and supreme God. But. this very 
same God (for the word is but once used in the whole sentence) was in 
Christ; manifest in the flesh, and reconciling the world to himself. 
And were there no other passage of Scripture to be found, this alone 
is sufficient to overthrow the whole doctrine of Arianism ; which, as 
far as the Scripture is concerned; depends upon this one assertion — 
that " the word God in Scriptuie, never signifies a complex notion 
of more persons than one; but always means one person only, viz. 
either the person of the Father singlv, cr the person of the Son sing- 
ly." (Clarke's S. D. P. II. S. 33.) ' Which is absolutely false : for 
here it signifies both. The text considers God as agent and patient at 
the same time, and upon the same occasion ; as the reconciler of the 
world, in the person of the Son; and the object to y.hom the reconci- 
liation was made, in the person of the Father ; yet there is but one 
word {God) to express them both. So that the word God, though of 
the singular number, is of a plural comprehension." Jones on the 
Trinity, ch. i. S. 14, p. 10. 

h See Jones on the Trinity, ch. i. S. 13. p. 9. 

t The Greek is — ton Theou emon kai Soteros Iesou Kristdu— the 
very same, as to the order and grammar of the words, with the last 
verse of this Epistle — toy, Kuriou emon, kai Soteros Iesou Kristou— 
which is thus rendered in our English version— of our Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ. And so, without doubt, it should be in the other 
passage : there being no possible reason why, tou Theou emon, should 
not signify, our God, as well as tou Kuriou emon, our Lord. The 
translators of the Bible, have given the literal sense of the Greek in 
the margin. Jones on the Trinity, ch. i. S. 13. p. 8. See Middleton on 
the Greek Article, pp. 568, §69. Sharp's Remarks on Def. Art. pp. 
20,21, 22. Am. ed. The versions of Wickliff, Coverdale, Matthews, and 
Cranmer^the Bishops', the Geneva, the Rhemish, Bibles, and others of 
a later date; and Tindal, the author of the first printed English ver- 
sion of the New Testament, have given the correct translation. See 
Middleton on Greek Article, p. 625. 



120 

" And his name is called The Word of God. k And he 
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King 
of Kings, and Lord of Lords." Rev. xix. 13. 16. l 

" These shall make war with the Lamb," 1 and the 
Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of Lords, 
and King of Kings." Rev. xvii. 14. n 

" The Son of God was manifested, that he might de- 
stroy the works of the' devil." 1 John, iii. 8. Compare 
this with 1 Tim. iii. 16. " Without controversy great is 
the mystery of godliness : God was manifest in the flesh." 
Christ, therefore, who became manifest in the flesh, is God. 

"And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord 
and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas because thou 
hast seen me, thou hast believed ; blessed are they that 
have not seen, and yet have believpd." Jobn,xx. 29. 30. 
This was no mere exclamation ; ° but a confession of faith 
which no sophistry can distort. 

" He [Christ] is before all thijigs, and by him all 
things consist." Col. i. 17. As there can be nothing in 
the universe but the Creator and the Creature, he who 
made the creature must himself be uncreated. Christ, 
therefore, is the uncreated God.? 

" He [Christ] is able even to subdue all things unto 
himself." Phil. iii. 21. This can be the work of God 
alone, for " none can stay his Jiand, or say unto him, 
tvhat doest thou?" Dan. iv. 35. But if Christ were a 
creature, the Supreme God could stay his hand, and make 
him unable to subdue any thing. Christ, therefore, is not 
a creature : and if not created, is the essential God. 

" All things that the Father hath are mine" John, 
xvi. 15. What ! Does Jesus Christ possess every thing in 
common with the Supreme God ! Jehovah is a Spirit : 
He is Eternal, Self-existent, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Om- 
nipresent, Immutable, Independent. He is Infinitely Just, 
Holy, Wise, Merciful, Perfect, Good, Gracious, &c. And 
does Jesus Christ possess all these attributes of Jehovah ? 

k John, i. 1. I Dan. ii. 47. 1 Tim. vi. 14, 15. 

m John, i. 29. n Deut. x. 17. 1 Tim. vi. 14, 15. 

o See Middleton on the Greek Article, pp. 381, 382. 
p See page 71. . 



121 

Then Jesus Christ is God. And he must possess them, or 
he could neither make, nor govern the works of Creation 
and Providence. Col. i. 16, IT- 

To forgive Sin, is a prerogative claimed by the Almigh- 
ty himself. " I, even I am he, that blotteth out your 
transgressions for ever for mine own sake." Isa. xliii. 25. 
But Christ exercised this prerogative. Matt. ix. 2. Luke, 
vii. 47, 48, 49. Well, indeed, might the Scribes exclaim, 
" who can forgive sins but God only ?" Mark, ii. T» 



122 



CHAPTER X. 



0} a Plurality of Persons in the Godhead. 



THE following texts are quoted for the serious medi- 
tation of the reader. A Plurality of Persons in the God- 
head, appears to be revealed in each : Let the reader judge 
for himself. 

" In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth. And the earth was without form and void, and 
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit 
op God moved upon the face of the waters." Gen. i. 1, 
2. Here are God, and the Holy Spirit. 

" And God said, let us make man." Gen. i. 26. Here 
are a plurality of persons. The Almighty does not say, 
Let there be man, as he said before, Let there be light; 
Let there be a firmament ; Let there be lights, &c. but 
" Let us make man" 

" Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomor- 
rah, brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven ; and 
he overthrew those cities." Gen. xix. 24, 25. Here are 
two Jehovah's expressly named. But as there can be but 
one God, a plurality of persons is implied, who partake of 
the same divine essence. 

" As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith 
Jehovah, my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words 
which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of 
thy mouth." Isa. lix. 21. Here are the Father, the Holy 



123 

Spirit, and a Third Person, the Son, to whom the Father 
is speaking. 

" The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me." Isa. lxi. 
1. It is Christ who is speaking, and who names, the Lord 
God and the Spirit. Here, then, are three persons. 

" I am with you saith the Lord of Hosts ; according 
to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out 
of Egypt; so my Spirit remaineth among you; fear ye 
not. For thus saith the Lord of Hosts— I will shake all 
nations, and the desire of all nations shall come ;" &c. 
Hag. ii. 4 — 8. Here are three persons — the Lord of 
Hosts, the Holy Spirit, and the Redeemer, whom, it is 
acknowledged, was foretold under the name of the desire 
of all nations. 

There are many other passages in the Old Testament, 
which might be selected for the same purpose, but they 
would occupy more room than I can spare. There are 
likewise many passages, where the noun and the verb, the 
noun and the adjective, and the noun and the particle, are 
plural ; and where the word which is translated God, is, in 
the original, plural. In Gen. iii. 5. the literal translation 
is " ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil." See 
likewise Gen. xx. 13. xxxi. 7. xxxv. 7. Exod. xxxii. 
1. Deut. iv. 7. v. 26. Josh. xxiv. 19. 2 Sam. vii. 23, 
and many others. Ajid so, Maker ? Creator, Master and 
Holy One, are likewise plural in the original. Job, xxxv. 
10. Isa. liv. 5. Mai. i. 6. Prov. ix. 10. Eccl. xii. 1. In 
several passages, there is a repetition of the name of God, 
which is worthy of notice. See Num. vi. 24 to end. Jos. 
xxii. 22. Ps. cxxxvi. 1 — 4. Isa. vi. 1 — 4. Jer. x. 10. 
Dan. ix. 19. 

The New Testament likewise furnishes us with many 
passages, in which a plurality of Persons in the godhead 
are named. Some are as follow : 

" While he thought on these things, behold the Angel 
of Me Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, 
thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy 
wife : for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy 
Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt 
call his name Jesus." Matt. i. 20, 21. Here, unques- 



124 

tionably are three persons— the Lord— the Holy Ghost— 
and the Son Jesus. 

" And Jesus, when he was baptised, went up straight- 
way out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened 
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a 
dove, and lighting upon him : and lo, a voice from hea- 
ven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased." Matt. iii. 16, 17. Here are the Son— the 
Holy Spirit— and the Father. 

" Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost. 19 Matt, xxviii. 19. See page 86. 

" The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also 
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called 
the Son of God." Luke, i. 35. Here are the Most High 
God, the Holy Ghost, and the Son of God. 

" His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and prophecied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, 
for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath 
raised up an Horn of salvation for us in the house of his 
servant David." Luke, i. 67—71. Here are the Lord 
God of Israel, the Holy Ghost, and Christ, who is called, 
by the Psalmist, the Horn of David. Ps. cxxxii. 17. 

" Upon whom thou shalt see the -Spirit descending and 
remaining on him, the same is he which baptiseth with the 
Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record, that this is the 
Son of God." John, i. 33, 34. Here John testifies that 
the Father is speaking, and that he saw the Holy Ghost 
descend upon the Son of God. 

" When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto 
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which pro* 
ceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." John, 
xv. 26. Here are the Holy Ghost the Comforter, not a 
comfort, a quality or influence, but a person, a Comforter', 
and the Father, and Christ the Son. 

" Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name 
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall 
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is 
unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar 
ofT, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Acts, 



125 

ii. 38, 39. Here are Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and 
the Lord our God. 

" To whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of 
God, persuading them concerning Jesus. And when they 
agreed not — they departed, after that Paul had spoken 
one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Pro- 
phet." Acts, xxviii. 23. 25. Here are "God, Jesus and 
the Holy Ghost. 

" There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 
And there are differences of administrations, but the same 
Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is 
the same God which worketh all in all." 1 Cor. xii. 4, 5, 
6. Here are the Spirit, the Lord, and God. By referring 
to verse 11, and comparing it with verse 4, the gifts of the 
Holy Ghost are separated from his personality, and the 
latter explicitly declared : " But all these worketh that 
one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man seve- 
rally as he will." 

" The grace of our Lore? Jesus Christ, and the love of 
God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you 
all. Amen." 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 

" How much more shall the blood of Christ, who 
through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to 
God." Heb. ix. 14. In this text we find mentioned otir 
Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Spirit, and the Father. 

" Praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the 
love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus 
Christ unto eternal life." Jude, 20, 21. Here are the 
three persons in the Godhead. 

These are but a very few of the number of passages 
which afford the same evidence. 



These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is 
the Christ, the Son op God ; and that believing ye might 
have life through his name." John, xx. 31, 



126 

Having now finished what I proposed to myself to do, I 
commend it, with all possible humility, to the Most High 
God, the Father Son and Holy Ghost, most fervently 
beseeching him, to sanctify it to his glory, and to the 
everlasting welfare of his people. Amen. 




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